


Song of the Sea

by teamchaosprez



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Background Relationships, F/F, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Royalty, Sirens, Soulmates, pearlmethyst and rupphire in the background yo, there are a lot more fantasy elements than i had first planned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-23 01:49:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 56,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6100843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lapis Lazuli is a feared pirate that wants nothing more than adventure, some alcohol, and money. Peridot is a princess that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course that will bring them together.</p><p>TUMBLR: teamchaosprez<br/>TRACKED TAG: sots lapidot</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was honestly a lot more fun to write than I thought it would be.

For two years now, there had been whispers amongst those living in cities on the shore. Rumors passed around about a merciless pirate that had begun to pillage any worthwhile ship in the sea. This mysterious swashbuckler didn’t have a name that anyone was aware of; nobody was certain of how old they were nor where they came from. Some dared to murmur that this mysterious captain was a  _ woman, _ though none actually took them seriously. Not one person had an accurate and reliable description of what the ship even looked like, though it became the commonly believed rumor that it was long and made of oak, with tattered sails of royal blue guiding the magnificent vessel through the waves of the ocean. Some thought that the pirate was part siren, though most snickered at this idea - albeit with a little bit of unease, because this captain was so mysterious that nobody was certain what to think or feel. Besides fear, which was the most common emotion for anyone dealing with the unknown.

There was one young woman with dark hair and tanned skin, no more than five foot two and inconspicuous enough that nobody in the town noticed enough to care that she would frequently disappear for weeks or even months at a time. The most unusual thing about her was the dark blue color of her eyes - they were almost black, and they were the only thing that anyone she spoke to remembered. Some even described them as the color of the deepest parts of the ocean. She was skinny and petite and often wore long sleeved dresses - they never had a petticoat underneath, so clearly she was a peasant, but there was no denying that she was one of the most beautiful girls in town. Despite her looks, most that came into contact with her had a tendency to forget her name and entire existence as soon as she left. Not one person suspected that she might have been the quiet pirate ruling the seas - she was such a small and pretty thing, and there was no way that leaned muscles and roughness could be hiding underneath the long dark blue dresses she always wore.

Captain Lapis Lazuli had put a lot of effort into her innocent little villager image, and was always pleased that it succeeded. She preferred to shrink from attention while also basking in the fame that had come to surround her endeavors. She knew every story that was told about her, knew that most of them were fake - she and her small crew had never left a survivor when they attacked other ships, so every little old fat man that claimed to have survived an attack from her ship was full of shit. She knew every nickname, from “Ghostbeard” (which was ridiculous, she didn’t even have a beard, but admittedly badass) to “The Phantom Siren” (which sounded more like a book title than a nickname for a pirate). After getting supplies from the town, she would always have a good meal with her friends back on the ship, and tell them any new stories that she had heard in the pub or in the market, and they would share what they had heard in return. It was always a fairly fun time, and they would sail deep into the uncharted ocean with full bellies and a lot of laughter among them.

Lapis would have loved to get drunk on rum and scotch in the pub, but that was unseemly for a lady to do at just two in the afternoon. It would have to wait until the evening, when she could feign a Cockney accent and pretend to be one of the old maids and widows and abused housewives that would get intoxicated every Friday night and share stories of men that had wronged them in the past. She never had stories to share, considering she was a homosexual and had absolutely no experience in dating (unless you counted sleeping with one of her crew members, Jasper, every so often out of loneliness and boredom), but it was always nice to be around people with normal lives and have her aversion to people of the “male” category justified past just not being attracted to them.

Pearl would probably get pissed at her for getting shitfaced instead of shopping for meat and salt anyway. The bird-nosed woman was beneath her ( _ she _ was the captain and she didn’t get where the fuck she got the idea that she could tell  _ her _ crew what to do), wasn’t even her first mate, but Lapis honestly wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at for doing things that pirates traditionally did. She supposed she should be grateful for the quartermaster keeping her in line - she would probably be an alcoholic by now at the young age of nineteen if it weren’t for Pearl scolding her every time she drank - but most of the time, she just got annoyed and snapped that she didn’t want to be controlled.

The captain always got antsy when she was out of the water for more than six hours, and they had docked at five that morning (give or take a few hours). She had spent most of her life on the boat that she now sailed - she had even been born on it, and her father had taught her about how to sail it and how piracy worked instead of learning more mundane things that wouldn’t do much for the future she had always wanted. She knew how to read and add and subtract and she knew how to be a decent terror on the open sea, and she didn’t see much of a point in learning more than that; if she really needed to know something, then Pearl (the most educated out of everyone on the crew) would teach her with great zeal. Even if she was greatly annoying about seventy five percent of the time she was doing so. Lapis had a tendency to wonder why the fuck she hadn’t just made Pearl walk the plank yet.

Needless to say, she wanted to be back on the Crystalled Mirror and start sailing again desperately. She wasn’t even really in the mood to listen to all the rumors going on around the town, even though she was normally one to eat up gossip and spit it back up as soon as she humanly could. The captain halfheartedly listened to the price that the merchant announced for the beef that she was buying, and slid the necessary amount of gold over the counter with about half of her mind certain that it was the right amount and not any more. As soon as she was thanked for her business, she left without more than a polite nod, slinging the heavy sack over her shoulder and beginning to struggle back to the ship so she could drop it off and then go right back to shopping for supplies.

Lapis  _ definitely _ needed a drink before she started round eight billion of bartering and carrying, fuck what Pearl said. Instead of making the turn to head back to the market, she walked the familiar road down to the pub. Who cared if it was only two in the afternoon and she was trying to keep her identity under safe lock and key, she was a pirate, and pirates could drink rum whenever in the hell they wanted. The building was familiar, from the dim lighting to the disgusting smell of men who had gone weeks without bathing, and stepping inside was the first time she had relaxed since she climbed off the ship that morning. She made her way over to the bar, giving the man behind it a bright smile even though the way he looked her up and down like she was something to eat made her want to punch his teeth out.

“Rum, please.” She spoke calmly in her faked accent, pulling the proper number of coins out of one of the pockets she had sewn into the side of her dress - hell if she wasn’t going to be efficient with her clothes - and sliding them across the counter as soon as she had double checked. She had been out drinking every time they landed - though those times weren’t as often as they could have been - and knew without needing to check how much it would cost her to get a glass of rum. If this asshole tried to swindle her out of more of her money than necessary, she’d have to pickpocket him on her way out.

“Isn’t that drink a little strong for a woman?” The bartender asked, though he took her money and grabbed a bottle of rum and glass to pour her a fix. Lapis had to restrain the overwhelming urge to knock his lights out and instead waited patiently before swiping her drink as soon as it was full enough, causing the tender to pour a little bit of rum on the counter. With a smirk, she watched him squawk in mortification and start trying to clean up the spilled liquid.

“Sorry, I don’t seem to recall asking for your opinion. I do what I want, and right now what I want is to drink some goddamn rum. Mind your own business and just do your job.” She gave a shit eating grin to the man that was now glaring heatedly at her before bringing the glass up to her mouth and swallowing down a sip of her alcohol. The captain let out a satisfied sigh as she rested her elbows against the counter and enjoyed her drink - yeah, it would definitely be less of a hassle to do pretty much anything with this stuff in her system. Maybe listening to Pearl’s nagging would even be more bearable if she was absolutely wasted - she was always sober for some reason when the taller woman decided to chew her out for her drinking habits. She had to remind herself in a bit of a scolding tone that she was  _ not _ here to be bothered by her quartermaster, but was here to let go of all the stress that came with being on the shore. With a blink, she realized that she had already finished the entirety of her first glass.

She tapped the empty cup against the counter, wordlessly asking for more. Her request was fulfilled in silence, the barkeep apparently not going to bother her a second time.

One hour and four glasses of rum later, she was more than a little bit tipsy, and may have started paying the bartender more than was necessary - she didn’t really notice, and therefore she didn’t care. Every problem she had with being on land had been completely forgotten in favor of everything around her being absolutely  _ hilarious. _ A couple of men in a booth got into a fist fight and Lapis had giggled madly at the display,  **especially** when the bartender got up to deal with it and got punched in the face himself. Lapis was a very temperamental drunk - it was entirely possible that she would be sobbing her eyes out at the next event to happen, but for the moment she was exceedingly giggly. She decided to lay off the drinks until she got  _ seriously _ intoxicated and unable to sail her ship, choosing instead to watch everything happening around her and wait until one of her crew inevitably turned up looking for her.

The captain couldn’t help but overhear a couple of people talking to her right about someone being missing, and was almost immediately curious. She turned as gracefully as she could, trying to be nonchalant about butting in on the conversation. Both of them seemed to be women, so they would take her seriously and not be condescending, thank god. “Who’s missing? I’ve been out of town for a while and I’m kind of behind on the news, but that seems important.” Thankfully, she was experienced enough with drinking that she didn’t stumble over her words every other syllable like she might have before.

“Oh, the princess,” One of the women replied, turning to look at her. “Her mother says that she’s been gone since earlier this week. Went on a walk and never returned to the castle.” She shrugged, looking back to the drink in her hand. “Everyone thinks that the mystery pirate nabbed her and wants a ransom for her, but if that’s who has her then she’s probably dead - maybe they wanted to kill her because she saw them. It’s a shame, really. She was a bit rough around the edges, but a sweet girl.”

“Oh.” Lapis immediately wanted to declare her innocence and say that whoever had Princess Peridot, it wasn’t her, but some part of her mind that remained intelligent through the haze of alcohol kept her from speaking up. Besides, she wasn’t so cruel that she would murder an innocent girl for seeing her ship from a distance… wait. Ransom. She  _ would _ kidnap a princess for ransom, and honestly, that wasn’t a bad idea, if she could kidnap her from her kidnappers. Which her drunken mind was completely certain that she could and would do. Still, she had to play it cool, so - “That’s too bad. I feel bad for her. Does anyone have any idea where she was taken?”

“There’s a rumor going around that the queen saw a ship take off from the beach by the castle to the west, but nobody’s entirely sure. It’s the most probable option, though, and fishermen are already swarming in that direction to try and get a reward for finding her alive.” The woman sighed heavily and took a sip from her alcohol. “It’s ridiculous. They should be looking for her because they’re worried, not just to get some money from the royal family.”

“I agree,” Lapis responded, though she really didn’t, and got up from her seat. She decided to not tip the bartender, still kind of bitter about his misogynistic question when she first arrived. “Thanks for letting me know, but I’ve got to go now.”

She didn’t even wait for a response before stumbling out the door into the fresh air - when did it become evening? - and starting to make her way to the inn where she and her crew were staying. It was a brilliant idea, and it was going to get them plenty of money to last a long while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot isn't too happy about her current situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel bad for poor Peri. Somebody take her away from me.
> 
> I feel compelled to let you know that this probably won't be realistic, considering it takes place in a fantasy verse and my knowledge of pirates is limited to what I can Google in ten minutes and the PotC movies. And also Sinbad. But this does take place in the early 1700's.

There seemed to be a stereotype that princesses had delicate skin, and previously it had annoyed this particular heiress to no end - she could sleep just fine with a pea under her mattress, thank you very much, and while she was pale she certainly wasn’t going to bruise if she was simply  _ poked. _ But even though it was annoying and mostly false, there was a little bit of truth to it - most royalty was sheltered their entire lives, kept from getting hurt as often as possible so that they would look graceful and elegant from the time they were toddlers, and Peridot was no exception. Her fair skin bruised pretty easily due to a significant lack of previous damage, and she had a very low level of pain tolerance. It was about half the reason that she was so  _ miserable _ in the lower level of her kidnappers’ ship - her wrists were completely wrecked by the tight rope that held her against a beam, and the rest of her wasn’t spared whenever a particularly strong wave made her crash into something. She was  _ covered _ in ugly bruises and small abrasions. The other half of her misery mostly sourced from being confined to one spot for roughly three days and having so suffer through a group of men looking at her like she was something to eat and mocking her for being someone of such high status reduced to such a situation.

Peridot wanted to go home and just go back to life as it had been. She tried to keep her head held high, act like she was still the superior one here and she wasn’t going to just take this. She knew that they were planning to kill her - though why they had taken three days to do so wasn’t entirely clear - but if she was going to die, she was going to do so with some sort of dignity left. Even if she had been internally panicking and gotten little sleep because of that for the last seventy two or more hours. They wouldn’t get away with this, she was certain of it - her mother and subjects would find out who had taken her, and justice would be served swiftly. That was her main source of comfort, that even after she was dead and gone her captors would get what they deserved, even if it took a long time. But, hell, these people were some of the stupidest she’d ever had the displeasure of talking to, so it probably wouldn’t.

She knew that these idiots weren’t the mysterious pirates of rumor - whoever that was had to be much more resourceful. These assholes had belching competitions late into the night and had long-winded debates about who was the most manly, and had a fatal flaw of leaving too much evidence whenever they had to stop sailing (she got that they had plenty of anchors and they were heavy as hell, but why would you just cut it every time?). In the long run, she was more  _ annoyed _ by them than  _ afraid. _ Some part of her couldn’t wait for them to hurry up and make her walk the plank so she wouldn’t have to deal with their tomfoolery - though she wasn’t sure they even  _ had _ a plank, or if they’d figured out how to kill her yet. Peridot had a sneaking suspicion that they were just holding her for ransom and wouldn’t even end her life in the long run. Or they were just cowards that couldn’t even kill a simple woman, royalty or not. The odds were fairly equal for both options, and she was sick to death of it already.

Mealtime was both the most positive part of her day and the worst. They didn’t even untie her to let her eat, the heathens, so she normally had to just use her face (because she would die before she lifted food with her feet). They didn’t seem to have much of a problem with that - of course they didn’t, they were all barbarians - and laughed at her whenever she asked to be unrestrained for about half an hour. Starvation wasn’t something she wanted to have to deal with, though, and she needed something to look forward to with how miserable she constantly was, so she always waited for them to leave before she ate. It was hell. Everything she had experienced in the last three days was a living hell, and though she wouldn’t define herself as suicidal, she internally wanted to die more than just a little bit. She didn’t know if she would rather wait to be rescued or ask them to hurry up and kill her already. Being helpless might have been the worst part of it, because she had no clue how to fight worth a shit and she was restrained - and she was on a ship in the middle of the ocean, anyway. She couldn’t swim and would most certainly drown before she even managed to get a few feet away from the damned boat.

Luckily, they never had the common sense to talk quietly, so Peridot was able to overhear almost everything that went down and passed through their heads. They were talking about the pirate of mystery that had been a hot subject as far as tall tales went recently - the princess didn’t believe this swashbuckler existed, but wondering what would happen if this boat was attacked helped her pass the time. On this particular afternoon, however, she was particularly annoyed and definitely not in the mood to eavesdrop on tall tales. “For stars’ sake,” she snapped the next time one of them came down to check on her, “ships sink in storms and separate pirate attacks every day. It’s just illogical to assume that this ‘Ghostbeard’ is behind them all. Stop being children and start worrying about what’s going to happen when my navy is going to find you and rescue me.” Big words from someone who wasn’t even sure that her people knew where to look, but it helped her mood a little to try and look intimidating.

“We’re experienced on the sea, princess.” The man responded, crossing his arms and giving her a sneering and snake-like grin that only succeeded in enraging her. “We know what’s going on and we’ve heard all the stories. Ghostbeard might night be as fake as you think, and even if he is, then none a’ us - ye included - got any way of knowing. N’ we were careful. Yer silly little army isn’t going to be able to find us, ‘cause the ocean is a wide n’ dangerous place. Might do ye good to get over yerself,” He walked over and kneeled to her level, roughly taking her chin in one of his dirty hands. She made a noise of disgust and jerked her face away to get him off - she  _ hated _ it when one of them thought it was appropriate to put their hands on her in any way, even if they hadn’t made a move to really hurt her. “Ye aren’t as high and mighty ‘s ye might think. If ye were, then maybe we’d have been more afraid t’ take ye in broad daylight. Yer country might be in a time of peace, but that just makes it weak.”

He had a lot of nerve, talking to her like that, and whatever fear she held at having him so close immediately gave way to anger. Clenching her fists in their restraints behind her back, she did the first thing that popped into her head and spat right in his face - with a small amount of smugness, she realized that the saliva hit him square between the eyes, and she couldn’t help but snicker slightly, a soft ‘nyehehehe’ that many tended to find irritating. However, her moment of pride was over when his slow brain realized what had just happened, and terror soon came back when he let out an enraged roar and jerked back. Shit, shit, that might have been a mistake, and she cowered back against the beam.

The man reared his fist back, and she realized that he was going to hit her - she had never been hit before in her life, and her heart just about stopped. The fist connected with her cheek and she let out a squeal of pain, the impact making her bite down on the soft flesh of her own cheek; the situation was only made worse when she tasted something warm and metallic in her mouth. Blood. She was  _ bleeding. _ Somebody had just hit her, and she was bleeding. Two firsts there - the only experience she ever had with blood was with her menstrual cycle, and whilst that hurt, she had a bit of comfort in knowing that it was an entirely natural event. Not this. Getting struck in the face was  _ not _ caused by her body, but by somebody that genuinely wanted to cause her harm. She didn’t care for it, and she didn’t know exactly how she was supposed to deal with it besides just cowering and trying to protect herself with her knees.

“Don’t do that again, ‘r I’ll have to do much worse to yer pretty little face.” The man snarled, but at least he was staying back this time. Peridot gave a shaky nod - yeah, she was probably going to be on her best behavior for the rest of the time she was here, just as long as she didn’t have to get punched in the face again. She felt as though she might cry, but she would stubbornly refrain from doing so until she was alone - she would  _ not _ give him the satisfaction of seeing her brought to tears because of something he did. She hadn’t cried yet, and she wasn’t going to start now, even if she was bleeding.

He lumbered out of the room, and when the door slammed shut Peridot allowed herself to spit out the red liquid that had gathered in her mouth. She sniffled a little and shifted her knees back up to her chest, wishing she could get up and walk around to try and ease her frayed nerves. Wishing a lot of things, really, starting with her overwhelming longing for the comforts of her family’s castle, and close behind that being her regrets over going out for a walk without an escort at all - but there was nothing she could do about either of those, so she settled for just wanting to get up and do something besides sit around like a damsel in distress. She couldn’t decide whether to be afraid for her future or fall into a deep pit of despair over the present, but either way, she was going to be miserable for quite a while - at least until this little ‘adventure’ was done and over with and she could get some decent sleep.

Sleep. She hadn’t done that in the last three days either.

The princess was unsure of how long she stayed curled up against the beam feeling sorry for herself, but she was only broken out of it by a heavy thud and the sound of wood splintering. Green eyes glanced over towards where the source of the sound must have been, and widened upon noticing that water was flooding in through a hole in the wood every time the sunlight gave way to the ocean with a bump of a wave. Like something had just broken its way through the ship and was now going to sink the thing. Judging by the size of the hole, she assumed that it must have been a cannonball fired from another ship at a startling speed.

She was barely aware of the panic that had burst out overhead until she blinked her way out of her shock. Peridot didn’t expect these idiots to know what in the hell to do, and she was apparently right, judging by the commotion. The word ‘pirates’ was tossed around a couple of times, and her throat ran dry. Of  _ course. _ How could it be anyone else? She was either going to drown or be kidnapped by another crew of smelly men that plundered and pillaged for a living.

“Why me?” The princess grumbled to no one in particular, leaning her head back so that it hit the beam with a small  _ thunk. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're gonna meet in the next chapter ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis reminisces about how she got her crew, and then rescues a quite frightened Peridot in a rather bloody display.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to update yesterday but I didn't feel like writing so I made it long to make up for it.

The crew of the Crystalled Mirror was a rather ragtag group, but the most competent on the seas. The most interesting thing about them was that every one of them was a  _ woman; _ the second was that each of them was homosexual. Lapis had a deep mistrust of most men, which was the first reason for her crew being the way it was… the second, well, that was a coincidence, and something that she could appreciate. She hadn’t even been intending to sail with anyone but herself at first, but circumstances had changed due to a whole myriad of issues that had cropped up with each member.

Lapis herself had been raised on the ship that she was now the captain to. One of the few rumors being passed around the coastal villages and cities that was correct pertained to her heritage; she was, in fact, half siren, but she had never met her mother. As far as she knew, her father had been a lucky sailor that wound up having a love affair with a siren instead of being drowned - why, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question it - and her mother had stayed on the ship for nine months until she was born. After that, she had disappeared back in the ocean, and Lapis’ father was left to raise her on his own; he always told her that he’d just gotten too attached to abandon her on the land, especially considering she had saltwater in her blood. She had never been given any formal education due to being brought up on a boat, but she did know many simple things and how to run her ship… which was all she needed, really. Her father had died about two or three years earlier, and she had taken the wheel where he had left off, even if his crew had refused to work with a girl younger than all of them and abandoned her immediately. Assholes. She didn’t need them, anyway - she was perfectly capable.

Jasper and Amethyst were the first to join her, and she hadn’t been intending to take either along with her; they were both children from the Spanish colonies in the Americas, sharing a native mother but with different fathers, that had run off to avoid brewing tensions in their home. Lapis had found them starving in the sand after anchoring her ship to shop for supplies, and, overtaken with pity, brought them aboard and helped them back to strength; she often joked that she hadn’t been able to get either of them to leave her alone since, but in truth, she had been the one to ask them to join her crew. The only thing that they really had in common was their manes of thick blonde hair, thick lips, and their tendency to be quite crude; other than that, they were fairly opposite. Jasper was about ninety percent muscle, tended to overwork herself to unhealthy levels, towered above everybody else at about eight feet tall, and used intimidation more often than she used friendship. Amethyst was more pudgy and lazy, preferred slacking to doing any actual work, was just under five feet tall, and preferred building up trust to scaring the shit out of others. Lapis got along with them both, perhaps better than the rest of her crew.

Pearl was the next, and though Lapis tended to fight with her more often than others, she had been the easiest to give in to and bring aboard. She was Japanese, but had been kidnapped and sold around in Europe for sex slavery; after running away, she’d caught a lucky break and just so happened to rush past where Jasper and Lapis had been drinking one night. The duo had fought off her captors after noticing that she needed help, and Pearl had requested to let her join them and help however she could; Jasper had been against it, but the captain herself had said it was alright. She was tall and thin with odd light blue eyes, and was loyal and overprotective to a fault - she was also a massive perfectionist that wanted everything to be correct and right at all times, from how the ship was organized to Lapis’ drinking habits. She had a tendency to utilize tough love and fight Lapis about pretty much everything, but she had…  _ something _ with Amethyst that involved a lot of flirting. The captain didn’t know and didn’t really question it… she didn’t care as long as they weren’t fucking during a plunder.

Ruby and Sapphire were the most recent additions, and also the ones that Lapis knew the least about. Ruby was the daughter of slaves from the American colonies, that much she knew, but what wasn’t clear was how she escaped or how she had come to know her lover. Sapphire had claimed to be the captain’s half sister on their mother’s side, which was how she said that she found her and lost an eye, and was a former noble; if it was true that they were sisters, then Lapis was exceedingly jealous that Sapphire had been able to meet their mother… even if that meeting had resulted in her vision becoming permanently obstructed. Ruby and Sapphire were also polar opposites; the former was hot headed and had trouble controlling her quick temper, and the latter was stoic, passive aggressive, and graceful. The one thing they seemed to have in common was a deep love for each other. They had a daughter as well, a little four month old named Garnet, that had been born during one of their stops for supplies; Sapphire, being the cook, was perfectly capable of doing everything with her baby strapped to her back. How exactly Garnet had come to be was absolutely beyond everyone on the crew but her parents, but they were secretive enough that everyone had long given up on getting any kind of answer.

Lapis considered everyone on board to be her friend, even if she had a tendency to butt heads with Pearl or be a little strict on Amethyst. She felt that was a good thing; if she couldn’t trust the women she spent every waking moment with and fought alongside, who could she? With the multiple issues with paranoia that had a tendency to take her over, she had to remind herself of this every time they got on the ship and untied it from whatever dock it was stopped at - that was always Jasper’s job, because she was the only one with enough muscle to do whatever pushing was required to get them out into the water, and also because she  _ always _ needed to stall for her sister. Amethyst was the most attached to land out of all of them, and had a tendency to keep walking around until Lapis lost patience and demanded that they take off without her, even if everyone knew she didn’t actually intend to.

This time, though, the youngest of the bunch was already on board and getting scolded by Pearl for taking some bread before mealtime. The takeoff was quicker than it usually was as a result, and the captain’s gaze was more focused on the sea of stars above than on the distancing town. It wasn’t until the buildings were just a speck on the horizon that she turned her gaze on the shrinking castle that sat on a hill just past the actual village; now that she was sober, she  _ did _ feel fairly sorry for the princess that had been taken from her home and swept off into the open ocean. The water could be fairly unsettling and hard to get used to for those that hadn’t spent their lives on it, as she had learned while her crew was building itself up, and she couldn’t imagine a royal with such an oppressive and overprotective mother as Yellow Diamond would have any reason to be experienced with seafaring.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” A voice beside her asked, and she jumped - she hadn’t noticed the approach of Sapphire, who was now at her right side and without the baby she was normally cradling when not cooking - must have left her with Ruby for the moment. “There are many things that can go wrong while on a rescue mission for someone of such privilege. We could sink the ship before we can get her out, we could accidentally leave some of her captors alive, we could be attacked and captured by her mother’s troops while bringing her back to her home…”

“But we can’t just leave her to die.” Lapis replied, interrupting the other’s sentence and shifting so that she was facing Sapphire instead of the land. “She didn’t actually do anything  _ wrong. _ Besides, attack other pirates and people with plenty of loot, and the guys that took her have  _ her. _ She’s worth a  **ton.** If we use the reward money, then we might have enough to last us  _ years. _ And I seriously doubt that last one will go down - we need to be quick about it, send the least conspicuous out of all of us - me - and return her to get the reward. It’s  _ simple, _ and it won’t be all that hard. Think positive, Sapph.”

“I can’t believe  _ you’re _ giving me a talk about keeping optimistic,” Sapphire sighed heavily before shifting her weight off the rail, ready to walk back to the kitchen. “But alright. I’m not coming after you if you get captured and imprisoned, though.” She was bluffing - she was just as loyal as the rest of the crew, and Lapis was fairly certain she would beat even Pearl to jumping to the defense of somebody. “Try to get some sleep. We could be as much as a week away from the ship.”

“Okay,  _ Mom.” _ Lapis replied, using the term jokingly and barely resisting the urge to stick out her tongue. “I’ll go to sleep in a little while. I just want to stargaze for a bit and think.”

“Careful, that’s dangerous.”

“I know.”

* * *

Whoever these assholes were, they were even more ridiculously bad at life than Lapis first foresaw. Pearl had begun to notice floating chains in the water, and Jasper pulling them up revealed that they were from anchors that belonged to a ship called the Humorous Robert. As if the obvious play on Jolly Roger wasn’t bad enough, it was obvious from the hasty sawing job that they had left in a hurry - the captain thought it might have been the kidnappers that they were after, so they had begun to sail on the course that the severed anchors laid out for them and collected the damn things along the way. “I’m starting to feel like  _ idiot _ might be a better word to describe them instead of just  _ incompetent _ ,” she had muttered to Amethyst while putting the most recent anchor away and received a nod in response.

They caught up with a rather unnecessarily large ship about two days after leaving the shore, and a simple glance at the sloppily written name on the side told Lapis that this was the ship that they had been tracking. “It’s so  _ big. _ I bet their rich parents bought it for them,” Pearl mumbled to her as she came to the deck - it had been agreed earlier that the tall woman and the captain would be the ones to storm the ship, with Jasper and Ruby hanging back for backup if needed. Pearl tended to fight with strategy, speed, and stealth, whereas Lapis tended to get close and get her opponent’s guard down before overpowering them and going for the kill. It was a good strategy in place of just fighting brute force with brute force as they were bound to once they were on the other ship. “I can’t imagine they’ll be much trouble - look, they’re drunk. I don’t even have to be near them to tell. No sober person walks all wobbly like that unless both of their legs have been replaced by pegs.”

The smaller of the two nodded in agreement - there certainly was an intoxicated feel to the way the men on the deck of the Humorous Robert were stumbling around and laughing at everything. “Should be easy to take out, then,” she commented apathetically before turning around to yell, “Hey, Ruby, fire a cannon at the bottom of the ship. We’re going to sink it so there’s no evidence we’re kidnapping from the kidnappers. If there are any survivors, nobody will ever believe them - they’re all drunkards. I’m going to steer us a little closer to the ship - Jasper, be ready to hold the board while Pearl and I step across.”

Confirmation was voiced across those she had addressed, and she skipped almost giddily over to the steering wheel. She loved attacking other pirates - in some strange way, it gave her a sense of power to slaughter other human beings. Maybe it was her way of releasing all the tension and frustration that tended to come with being the captain of one of the most feared ships on the ocean. Or maybe she was just some sick and twisted criminal rogue - either way, she was looking forward to the adrenaline rush that was certain to come with the mission that she was about to pull off with ease.

An explosion and the sound of wood splintering told her that the cannonball had hit its mark, and it didn’t take her all that long to shift the ship in the direction of the other one - her boat was fast, and the other one was apparently anchored or just moving very slowly. Sure enough, by the time they were close enough that she could step across with the help of the plank, Jasper was holding it in position and Pearl was ready to follow her across into the line of battle… if it could even be  _ considered _ as such. This victory would definitely be easy; almost  _ too _ easy. Drunk people couldn’t think straight, so they attacked too directly and with too much force and too little grace. Having fought when drunk before, Lapis knew it fairly well - quickness was the easiest way to take them down, which was what Pearl and her rapier were for. The captain herself, well, she was going to make her way to the princess as soon as she could.

It wasn’t very difficult. The men on the Humorous Robert hadn’t been expecting women, and their panicked shrieks of “PIRATES! PIRATES!” got really old really fast. It was easy to either stab them through the chest and shut them up immediately or knock them out to leave them for the ocean to swallow up and never spit back out. Her biggest concern, actually, was their trying to stop her slowing down her advance and making her spend more time fighting than actually getting below deck to check where the cargo was stored. Internally, she cursed herself for being cocky enough to just let the boat sink partway before even boarding - she hadn’t foreseen how quickly they would be able to get back up after just a blow to the head, so she wound up having to impale most of them and then spend a few seconds yanking her sword out from getting stuck in a ribcage or something of the sort.

By the time she reached the cargo hold, she was covered in blood that was not hers and maybe just the slightest bit fatigued. The water below deck was about up to her knees, and she was relieved to see a short and pale figure tied by the wrists to one of the support beams - judging by the puffy dress she wore, that was the princess that she had been seeking. Feeling more at home in the water than on dry land, Lapis had no trouble beginning to wade through the salty liquid towards the younger girl.

Unfortunately, she had made the mistake of believing that every member of this ship’s crew was either dead or unconscious. This grave error came to her attention in the form of an unexpected fist pounding against the side of her head and sending her falling into the water. She caught herself on the ground with her hands quite easily and flipped herself into a standing position, turning to face her attacker. It was a rather tall and stocky man with his face set in a snarl. He didn’t seem drunk; he was too steady in his motions and standing, and his breath didn’t stink of alcohol.

“You’ve attacked my ship and you’re killing my crew.”

Ah, so he was the captain, then. At least Lapis would get to fight  _ one _ semi-worthy opponent before the day was done. “Obviously. But I think it seems pretty obvious that at this point we’ve won. Maybe, if you give up, I’ll let you live and ride aboard with my people.” She was bluffing, of course; she didn’t want anyone like this man on her precious ship or around her friends. Especially not someone that was  _ this bad _ at seafaring - it would be suicide to let him anywhere near the Crystalled Mirror.

Apparently, he could spot her lie, because he swung his fist at her again - this time, she knew that it was coming and was successfully able to dodge. With a glance around the space, she determined that water was filling up the cargo space fast, and she would need to fight quickly in order to get out with the princess - she could swim, of course, had probably learned how to swim before she even learned how to walk, but she had no clue of the royal could. She needed to strike hard and fast, and couldn’t rely on the other captain misjudging distances or balance due to his state of sobriety. Fuck, she didn’t need a formidable opponent, she just needed to get out of there, and as fast as she possibly could.

She swung her weapon at his side, and he moved out of the way; a thrust forward was met with the same action. The pirate clenched her teeth and continued trying to attack, only for the burly man to dodge every blow - this was more frustrating than frightening, honestly, because she knew that she would be the one to prevail and emerge with her life. That was just how it went - Lapis would plunder another ship, take whatever valuables they had on it, and sail away a hundred percent alive with a lot more blood on her hands. She had come to  _ expect _ that outcome every time, and was expecting it now; she would kill this man, and leave the ship with a princess in her arms.

Lapis had to dodge a couple of blows to the head herself. He didn’t have a sword. Of course he didn’t. He was just an experienced fist fighter, and was infuriatingly good at that. If he had been allowed to hit her, then she would be knocked out and drowning by then. He was good despite his lack of a blade; the captain had to admit that begrudgingly,  _ especially _ when he made a swipe of a kick at her lower legs and knocked her into the water. Having not expected it, she inhaled a gasp of the liquid.

As soon as she struggled into a sitting position, spluttering and coughing, the man grabbed the collar of her shirt and shoved her against a wall. She gripped her sword tightly - he must have been depending on the lack of room to keep her from just impaling him right then and there. He said something about a woman never being able to defeat him, but honestly, she wasn’t paying much attention; she had a tendency to block out things being said in moments of high tension. Not giving herself any time for suspense, Lapis quickly shoved the blade of her weapon right through his abdomen.

Shocked momentarily, he held her in place before simply collapsing. The saltwater couldn’t have felt good against his open wounds, Lapis noticed with a bit of a grimace as the stuff around her began turning deep red - but she couldn’t afford to dwell on that. The water was now about up to the bottom of her breasts, and she had to resort to swimming to get to the restrained royal in an efficient amount of time. As quickly as she possibly could, she severed the ropes holding the blonde in place and lifted her into her arms - she was light, and even if she wasn’t, the water was less dense than air.

“Hello, I’m Lapis Lazuli, sometimes known as Ghostbeard or the Phantom Siren, and I’m here to get you the  _ fuck _ out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daaaaamn Lapis, at it again with the murdering people.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot meets the captain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHRIST I am so sorry about the delay you can throw tomatoes at me I deserve it

Peridot couldn’t deny that her situation on the new ship was far better than on that of her captors - and she could tell from the moment she woke up in what she assumed to be the captain’s quarters based on the almost overly soft bed and the expensive looking furniture surrounding her. Sitting up with a yawn, the princess rubbed her eyes - she must have been asleep for a long time, because she almost felt  _ lethargic, _ a lazy feeling deep within her mind that pretty much refused to allow her to get up and start moving. The short blonde sighed heavily and turned over in the bed, tugging the blankets around her until they formed a comforting cocoon; maybe she could hide from life if she really tried to.

She could hear talking just outside the cabin, though she couldn’t quite make out what was being said - or even what it was a discussion about. She had no desire to step out and find out for herself, however, considering she was exhausted despite her sleep and the soreness of being forced to remain in one position for three days was beginning to catch up with her. Peridot was perfectly fine with just remaining in her current spot, curled up in a comfortable bed and left well enough alone.

This gave her the opportunity to actually  _ think _ and  _ reflect _ for the first time since she was kidnapped - and her first thought was that it was absolutely  **strange** that she now owed the debt of her life to the pirate that had been an absolute terror to the seas for the past two years. Very out of place, considering her mother had placed a massive bounty on the mythical pirate’s head and  _ she _ was not supposed to wander anywhere  _ near _ even the most tame of pirates when they stopped by the kingdom. Part of her, a more biased and ‘logical’ part, wanted to believe that her rescuers had only saved her for their own selfish purposes (maybe they would use her as a sex slave, or bait to pull and deplete Delmarva’s navy). She could not, however, lie to her experiences - and her experiences told her that the pirate whose ship she was on was most certainly at least a decent person. Anyone with toxic intentions would definitely have locked her away below deck again, right? Or perhaps even have killed her by now, if they were  _ truly _ in the mood to stir up some trouble.

The name which she knew her savior by was the Phantom Siren - that was the ‘official’ name passed around in the castle’s walls… but, apparently, her name was in actuality Lapis Lazuli. Some of the objects of the quarters even had the stone embedded in them, and Peridot had to snort slightly at the thought that this pirate either had a sense of humor or had a massive ego. Most of the furniture - a table, a bed, chairs - was carved from some dark wood - dark stained maple, perhaps - and any details like curtains or the blankets on the bed were blue. Sunlight poured in from large windows, and Peridot found it to be rather odd that nothing fell over whenever the ship was rocked by a particularly strong wave… perhaps everything was just nailed down, which would have been the wisest choice.

The princess was wrapped up enough in studying her surroundings that she barely noticed when the door opened and a figure walked in. It was a girl, not much taller than her and plenty leaner, with short jet black hair and tan skin. It took her a moment, because the other ship had been dark and flooding and she had fainted partway through the event, to recognize that this was the woman that had saved her from her previous prison. She was holding something in her arms, and upon noticing that Peridot was awake and aware, smiled and walked over. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. I was beginning to fear you’d never wake up,” the pirate spoke in a chipper tone, holding out the object and allowing the young royal to take it. Unwrapping the cloth holding it told Peridot that it was bread, and it had been long enough since she was actually able to  _ eat _ with her  _ hands _ that she felt like crying.

“Thank you,” she spoke in reference to the food, trying to keep an official and cold air about her as she regarded the pirate - but damn if it wasn’t difficult. She was overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion. “I am just going to assume that no introductions are needed, since I’m a princess and you have already told me your name. So I just have a couple of questions, if you wouldn’t mind answering them - one, how long was I asleep? And two, why did you get me away from those brutes?”

“You’re welcome,” the pirate nodded at the bread, indicated that she could eat - and damn, did she, using all of her self control to take delicate bites instead of just wolfing the loaf down. “You were asleep for roughly twenty six hours, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise - you were pretty banged up and exhausted when we rescued you. As for why we saved you, well, I personally don’t care much for pirates taking innocent people for the simple reason of killing them. It’s disgusting - especially when the pirates are men targeting seventeen year old girls, regardless of royal status. We’re just going to take you back to your kingdom and maybe collect the reward money. You’re safe here.”

Peridot nodded slowly as she finished eating the bread - somehow, she could believe the pirate without much trouble, though she had to internally remind herself to be cautious and careful when socializing with Lapis Lazuli. Young and beautiful and good or not, she was a terror of the seas that had not allowed a single survivor, and regardless of how nicely Peridot was being treated she probably needed to be on her toes at all times lest this swashbuckler try something funny. “About how far from my kingdom are we?,” she asked, tilting her head. “I was three days away when you got me out of that awful ship. So we must be about two days from home?”

“Something like that,” the slightly taller of the two replied with a shrug. “We visit your kingdom once every three months or so, so we know the way pretty well. The only way anybody could fuck this up is if Jasper took a wrong turn or something, or the wind drove us off course. Then we might have a bit of a problem and have to use the map,” she gestured to the table, “but I think we’re good.”

“What chance is there for us to get caught up in a storm on the way back?,” Peridot asked cautiously, looking the captain up and down briefly. She wanted to know if Lapis truly knew what she was talking about - the seafarer was much more reliable in matters of the ocean than she, of course, but the princess never really liked being uncertain. Especially when the manner involved was her getting home safe and sound to her mother and her people.

“Well, the weather was pretty nice when I came down to check on you,” Lapis responded slowly, walking over to the great windows so that she could look out at the brewing ocean. Peridot thought she could see a pang of adoration on the pirate’s face as she looked out at the frothy waves of the deep blue, and momentarily the princess believed that Lapis was smitten with the ocean, or - at least thought of it as home. “But, to be honest, there’s no predicting the ocean. The sea is a cruel mistress. Unforgiving. She can turn on you at any moment, beat you mercilessly into submission with a nice storm and leave you on her sandy floor for dead. Or, you know, just blow you way off course, which is more likely with a crew as experienced and a ship as nice as mine. I can’t promise you anything, but I can assure you that we are doing our best and will try to get you home in two days.”

The princess scrutinized the captain momentarily, slightly startled by the fluctuation of her tone. “How can you stand to be in such unstable conditions?,” was the first question that came to mind - and, completely lacking a filter of politeness, she blurted it out.

Lapis didn’t seem offended, at least, and just laughed for a moment as she turned back to Peridot. “Like I said, Dot, the sea is a cruel mistress, but…,” she winked in a manner that the princess hoped was joking, “that turns me on.”

The insinuation made Peridot blush slightly, enough so that she didn’t even think to scold the pirate for calling her by such an unprofessional and unseemly nickname. All she could do was watch as the raven haired young woman exited the quarters with a small chuckle.

* * *

 

There was, in fact, a storm by the time the day was done. A big one. Lapis had been forced to take the wheel and steer them in a different direction,  _ away _ from the most dangerous part, as Peridot was ushered below deck and away from any risk of breaking glass by a woman with a baby in her arms and bangs in her face - the cook, apparently, Sapphire Winters. She had kept the panicky princess calm, speaking to her in a kind yet detached voice and explaining that the captain had everything under control and it was not likely that the Crystalled Mirror would be sinking anytime today.

She had been unaware of the worst of it, and she was grateful for that - all she’d had to deal with was gut wrenching rocks of the boat, the occasional terrifying moment where she feared that it would flip, and the shouts going on above deck. At some point it had gotten bad enough that Lapis apparently forced the rest of her crew to come and take cover in the storage area - a short and stout woman, a very thin one that clutched her hand, a very finicky woman that immediately made a beeline for Sapphire, and a tall, muscular brute. They had been introduced to her as Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Jasper, and she might have been gladder to meet them if the fear of God was not on her shoulders.

The storm had, eventually, eased up, and Lapis was very frazzled and sopping wet by the time it was over. Peridot couldn’t help but be in awe of the bravery, stupidity, or both that had been necessary for the captain to remain on deck and steer the ship to safety. She was also grateful enough to be alive that she didn’t really mind when said captain told her that they were now massively off course and it would take closer to a month to sail back to Delmarva in the direction they were going.

Now that she was back in Lapis’ quarters and staring out the window at the intense waves outside, though, she had to force herself to be optimistic about her journey home being so delayed. On the one hand, she’d always wanted to see at least part of the world and go on some adventure, so that was good, right? On the other, she would probably go insane if she was cooped up in this room for a month not knowing what was going on back home or how her mother was doing or if her monarchy was being overthrown in a massive peasant revolt that she was only safe from witnessing because she was off gallivanting with pirates. Maybe she was going slightly overboard in her negative scenarios, but hey, she was never one to be completely optimistic.

It was an odd situation, to be sure, and one that Peridot was growingly split about. As the stage of panic wore off, however, she was able to find some sense of calm in the unpredictable crashing of the waves that she could just barely hear through the walls and the laughing and talking going on outside her quarters. Something… reassuring about the nighttime sounds of the Crystalled Mirror and the way the full moon leaked eerie light into the quarters - if she really stretched it, they weren’t all that different from the ones that overlooked the ocean in her room back in the castle.That was… comforting. Eased the growing homesickness a little bit.

Peridot curled up in the blue covers of the bed, nestling into her little cocoon easily. This was becoming familiar, though she wouldn’t really expect much else from the place she had been in the last day or so. Despite only having been up maybe twelve hours after the longest sleep of her life… the princess had absolutely no trouble in falling asleep once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last lil bit was slightly rushed bc I wanna get some sleep so I have some energy for Easter tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis and Peridot have another conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL THIS ONLY TOOK ME A GODDAMN WEEK TO WRITE. I am so sorry about the slow updates, I've been stressed out and suffering from writer's block for a while. You probably shouldn't expect really regular updates until summer.

Lapis felt bad that the ship had gone off course. She really did. She had told the princess that she could get her home in just a couple of days, and she hadn’t planned on going against her word mere hours later - pirates might have had a reputation of being liars and dirty cheats, but Lapis had never broken a promise she had made, no matter how indirect. Even just a few days off schedule she would be absolutely fine with, but a  _ month? _ Even more than that! With the way the currents were going and the storm blowing them so far into the sea, it would take six weeks at the very least.

She was reluctant to walk into her quarters come sunrise. She hadn’t slept very much with the crew under the deck, and she was longing for her bed and complete lack of Jasper and Amethyst’s snoring - but that wasn’t really her objective in walking into the room. Lapis needed to talk to Peridot, make sure she knew the rules if she was going to be staying on the ship for longer than initially planned… and make sure that she was alright and not freaking out now that the initial relief at being alive had probably worn off.  The last thing the pirate wanted was to get yelled at for something that was not fully under her control - and it stuck in her mind that royals were spoiled and probably did not take kindly to plans being changed or cancelled despite her warning beforehand that things could change.

Slipping into the room was not difficult, as she (obviously) knew where it was and knew how to open the lock. A quick look to the bed told her that Peridot was already awake and seated on the surface, a book in her lap as she studied it carefully - Lapis noticed that she was squinting and needing to hold it to her face, so she must have needed glasses. The pirate made a mental note to see if she could get her some the next time they stopped in a city, as they would inevitably need to at least once during this month long trip. She supposed that added a good week to the time they would need to reach the kingdom.

“Good morning, princess,” she spoke nonchalantly, striding over to the royal but keeping her distance by at least five feet, crossing her arms. “It’s a brand new day. I’m not going to force you to converse with me or come out of the room, but I’m going to be in a few times to check on you. It’s going to take us maybe five or six weeks to reach your kingdom, so eventually you’re going to need to leave the room and walk around the ship or go for a swim.”

“I can’t swim,” Peridot responded flatly, studying the pirate with intelligent green eyes. “But I’m willing to walk around if physical activity is a necessity. I don’t mind the delay, as long as I get home eventually - I choose to trust that you’re doing your best to get me back to the kingdom as quickly as you can. Don’t take that for granted. I don’t trust very easily.”

“What I’ve observed in the last couple of days contradicts that.”

“You saved my life. You get a free pass.”

Lapis snorted faintly, closing the distance in order to seat herself next to the princess. Said royal tensed slightly at the closeness, but relaxed slightly when she realized that the pirate wasn’t planning to make physical contact. “I guess I’m lucky for that, then,” the raven haired woman spoke with a small smile, studying her companion as she continued to speak. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s it like being a princess? I was born and raised on this ship - I have always been kind of wealthy, as piracy runs in my family, but I can’t imagine what it’s like to have the future of an entire kingdom resting on my shoulders. All I’ve got is a legacy to live up to.”

Cautious lime orbs scrutinized her blue for several moments before the blonde eventually decided to respond, straightening up slightly and looking off to the side. “I am not going to complain about my privilege, because I know that there are certainly many less fortunate than I, but… if I’m completely honest, being royalty is nothing but a bunch of stress and expectations thrown on me at the time I was conceived. I’m supposed to learn how to be a good leader, but according to my mother’s advisor finding a good husband will take care of that for me, so I mostly just need to learn how to settle down and look pretty and talk nicely. Which I don’t really like. Especially because my father has been dead since I was young and my mother is a perfectly fine monarch just on her own. But also partially because I would prefer to learn more about how the world and technology work and become an intellectual instead of becoming an accessory for my kingdom to claim or a dictator in charge of her people.”

Lapis nodded slowly. “I can understand that,” she responded after several moments, finally shifting her attention away to glance out the windows of the quarters. “I may be the captain of this crew, but I have a lot of freedom being - you know - a pirate. No laws out on the open waters as long as you don’t roll into the lands a ship you sank came from.”

“Murder is illegal everywhere, and people know you exist across the world.”

“Okay, first of all, I only kill those who deserve it. Directly, anyway. I mostly just pirate other pirates and corrupt governments,” the older of the two corrected, lightly flicking the princess’ nose. Peridot made a noise of protest and smacked her hand away, pouting. “Secondly, yes, people know I exist, but most of their stories about me are roughly as likely as some guy getting killed and then rising from the dead three days later. I’m a myth to some, and nobody suspects the skinny little dark-skinned girl that shows up occasionally in saloons and restaurants to be the feared pirate of the sea. If anyone thinks anything of me personally, they probably think I’m a public nuisance and a disgrace to society whose drunken antics probably ought to be stopped lest I damn us all to Hell. And even that’s a stretch - trust me, Dot, I’m not considered a danger by any self respecting person on land unless I’m in a story.”

“Don’t call me that,” Peridot protested to the nickname with a small scowl, crossing her arms and twisting her body so that she could face away from Lapis somewhat without actually taking her eyes off of her. “But I guess I can accept that. But… you sink ships from my mother’s fleet. Those are my people. Would that mean that you consider my kingdom to be corrupt? Because I don’t see anything that could lead you to come to that conclusion - we’re pretty decent for such an old monarchy with old ideals.”

“I don’t know what they teach you in that big old ivory tower,” Lapis snorted slightly, barely resisting the urge to flick her again. “Look, they’re lying to you, or they’re blinded by patriotism. I’ve been around the world. There are many kingdoms with better policies than yours, more up to date and less focused on capital punishment. The foundations of your bloodline are probably crumbling beneath your mother - public beatings for those that dare say anything negative about the queen, citizens prevented from leaving under the threat of executions, spies placed everywhere in the village. You might be the most wealthy nation I’ve come across, but there’s a reason that I haven’t applied for citizenship. And it’s not just the fact that I spend ninety percent of my time on the ocean.”

Peridot sniffed disdainfully, and the pirate was momentarily worried that she had upset the princess, but for the most part she was just satisfied that the blonde was unable to argue. “You probably don’t spend enough time in the kingdom to know for sure. I’ve lived my whole life there, and I’ve mainly seen fairness and no punishments that were undeserved,” she spoke finally, averting her gaze from the older girl. “Perhaps a bit harsh, but they  _ did _ break the law, and need to be apprehended and humiliated so they don’t do it again. Right?”

“I think ‘harsh’ is an understatement. There are hardly any nations left with a ‘public beating’ policy, and those that remain would be considered barbaric by yours,” she shrugged slightly. “I was hoping that you being the heiress would change everything, install less brutal rules and punishments, but it looks like you’ve been too sheltered and brainwashed since youth to see anything wrong with your mother’s kingdom.  Mark my words, your monarchy is going to fall. Possibly with you, when the fear of being executed for the smallest of demerits wears off. The best time to revolt is with a new and inexperienced royal at the reigns.”

A look of hurt crossed the blonde’s face for a moment as she stared at the pirate, and Lapis wasn’t sure if she regretted offending her or was smug about it. A debt was owed to her, so it wasn’t like pissing off a royal would do anything to put her life in danger. What she wasn’t expecting was for the princess to suddenly poke her chest, looking a bit angry - which might have been amusing, given that she was small, if it wasn’t surprising. “Listen, you  _ clod _ ,” the heiress snapped, green gaze squinting into a harsh glare. “I am not going to sit here and have a fucking  _ pirate _ tell me that my government is going to fall with me. It may be that the policies instilled by my mother are more harsh and brutish than need me, but I can fix it. People like you prefer anarchy and chaos to logic and reasoning; I bet you’d be happy if there was no governments at all, so you could kill people and plunder their ships without any fear of death and the law catching up to you. I don’t care if you just saved my life and you’re one of the most ruthless criminals currently active, I will  _ not _ be disrespected. If you insist on being rude to me, then I will forget about how  _ grateful _ I am for your kindness in saving me and work until the day I die to bring you and your entire crew to justice for your crimes against the Kingdom of Delmarva and all neighboring nations,” She snapped in an impressively quick manner, before quickly looking flustered - Lapis was more than a little impressed when she managed to puff her chest out and look official.

“You’re the one that was curious about why I think of your monarchy as corrupt,” the pirate responded coolly, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender. “But fine. I won’t talk smack about your kingdom anymore - not because I’m scared of persecution, because I’ll be halfway across the globe before you can even get a convincing report in, but because I respect that you decided to stand up to me,” Lapis spoke calmly, then stood up and brushed off the dust that had gathered on her lap. “Now, princess, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ship to run. I’d suggest you stay in here for the time being.”

She barely managed to resist the urge to laugh when Peridot’s cheeks turned bright pink, turning on her heel and walking out the door - grabbing her sword from where it rested against the wall, of course, mainly just to look intimidating and impressive as she left. Lapis  _ was _ more than a little impressed by the princess’ snapping back at her - partially because most royals, she’d heard, tended to turn into cowardly and blubbering messes when cornered by someone more physically adept. She hadn’t been expecting the blonde to stick up for her bloodline so vehemently.

It crossed her mind, just for a moment, that it was kind of hot.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis Lazuli is unfairly attractive, and Peridot does not appreciate it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so sorry for the delay

Peridot sighed heavily, burying herself under the covers of the bed with the sort of frustrated finality that might be seen when a toddler slams a door. She might have screamed into the pillow if she wasn’t at least ninety percent sure the captain would come back and make a dirty joke, or something of the sort; Lapis had already been excessively rude and holier-than-thou towards her, so what was stopping the pirate from being the vulgar and promiscuous sort of sailor? It wasn’t like the mangy dogs of the sea had any sort of moral standard. She had made an error in assuming that, just because her life had been saved and she was being escorted home, the crew of the Crystalled Mirror was any less dirty and awful than the men who had kidnapped her in the first place.

Okay. Maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration. At least she was treated like a person on this ship, not a bargaining chip to be chained to a pole and pushed around. She supposed she shouldn’t complain - even if the captain was annoying and rude, at least she was fucking  _ humane _ and not some gross bearded guy with a lust for blood like she had been expecting based on all of the stories that were passed around in the kingdom. Things could’ve been a lot worse, all things considered.

As long as she kept to herself and tried not to start any conversations that might start an argument, she supposed she would be able to live through the next month without losing her temper and getting herself into way more trouble than was probably good for her. Holding her tongue wasn’t an easy feat, considering she had a tendency to become impatient and insult anybody she deemed worthy; she could barely hold onto her patience when she was dealing with her royal duties every week or so for an hour at a time, so she wasn’t entirely sure how she was supposed to pull it off if the pirates insulting her mother’s kingdom was going to be a common and everyday thing.

She let out a frustrated groan as she buried her face in the pillow, the sudden cutting off of her oxygen bothering her slightly but not enough to break her out of her miniature fit. There was no denying it, things kind of sucked right now. She wished she’d never gone for a walk, or at least had made a couple of her personal guards tag along a reasonable distance behind her. Then she would never be in this mess; she might even be still asleep right now. Never knowing the constant turmoil her emotions had put her through the last few days.

The past was in the past, though, right? It wasn’t like she could change it, despite how much she wanted to - that was one thing her status couldn’t do for her. She couldn’t turn back the clock to redo her week with the knowledge she had gathered, even if it would probably be for the best. Hell, there might even be some kind of unseen reward for going through all this bullshit that she would never have known if she had just stayed in the castle and been a peaceful, demure little princess; a living stereotype.

She scoffed at herself for being ridiculous shortly after. Ha, benefits. What good could come out of gallivanting with pirates for a month? It wasn’t like she was going to fall in love with any of these heathens; it would be unseemly for her to be attracted to, and consequently marry, another woman anyway - her kingdom would be ruined, she would never produce an heir, and the monarchy would come to a screeching halt with her. No, that wasn’t going to happen.

Though, Lapis Lazuli  _ was _ seriously good looking, even if she was vulgar…

Peridot internally kicked herself for thinking that. No, there was no way she would let herself develop any sort of attraction, sexual or otherwise, to the captain of the Crystalled Mirror. Her mother would think so lowly of that, it was laughable to even consider; not to mention it would completely annihilate any sort of respect her subjects held for her. 

Why was she even thinking so in depth about this? It was a passing thought. It wasn’t like she was  _ actually _ into the pirate by any means, right? So what if she had a nice figure, and a pretty face, and a nice voice that probably sang really well, and some traces of kindness in her heart that were probably suppressed by her life on the rough ocean waters?

The blonde royal wanted to kick herself for letting her thoughts go that out of control. Okay, maybe she did have an attraction to Lapis Lazuli, but it wasn’t serious - it was probably because she had saved her life. It would probably wear off as soon as her feet were returned to solid ground, maybe even sooner. Her mind was just in the gutter because of what she had gone through, and she just wanted to be held and made feel safe by someone - the gratefulness she felt towards the pirate and her crew were probably just combining with that desire and her complete lack of experience to fool her into thinking that she was actually developing feelings for the young captain.

Ugh, her body temperature was rising with every moment she tried to analyze this. The covers were beginning to feel far too warm, so she kicked them off, getting out of the bed and walking over to the window facing the sea. Gazing out over the deep blue waters, she had to appreciate the beauty that the unpredictable tides held; any moment, they could turn on the ship, breaking the hull or something like that and sinking them all into the deep, dark void of nothingness filled with God knows what kind of creatures. Nothing but endless, heavy, suffocating waters for many, many leagues underneath the dry illusion of safety that was the ship - it was intimidating, but also remarkably beautiful.

Mostly intimidating. A lump of fear began forming in her throat as she watched the ocean; she didn’t understand what sort of sick thoughts or nihilistic tendencies ran through Lapis’ head to make her find any sort of comfort and sense of being at home in this terrifying expanse of deep, dark, salty blue. The longer she stood there, in fact, the more she feared it; which she kicked herself internally for. She would need to get used to this at some point if this was going to be her home for a month.

Turning on her heel, the princess walked over to the door that separated the captain’s quarters from the deck, opting to look out at and see what the crew was up to. Maybe that would be a little saner and less terror inducing than observing the element that was more dangerous than even the most trained of humans. How ironic, that one of the things that was required to do such important things as living could murder people without the need to worry about what it had done.

She could sense the amiable atmosphere outside without really needing to open the door. Amethyst and Ruby were sparring with thin swords - rapiers, she thought they were called, similar to those used by the fencers of her kingdom - as a very frustrated (but appearing amused nonetheless) Pearl apparently tried to instruct them. Jasper was watching with her arms crossed, leaning against one of the masts with a small smirk on her face; she looked almost smug watching all of this happen. Sapphire was seated on the deck a ways away, cheering her wife on with her daughter tucked into one arm. But, by far, the most fascinating person outside to watch was Lapis Lazuli herself.

The captain was standing calmly near the door of the quarters, playing a flute with her eyes closed and her hair ruffled and tossed around by the wind. Peridot couldn’t hear what song was coming from the small instrument, but she was fairly certain it must have sounded nice. Lapis looked so… peaceful at the moment, so unlike how one would expect the captain of such a feared ship to behave. Watching her in such a calm state made it become progressively harder to look at her and deny that she was beautiful; the princess’ heart pulsated almost painfully in her chest as she watched the pirate. She probably should have looked away, but it was almost impossible to tear her eyes away…

Lapis must have felt somebody watching her, because she lowered the flute from her lips and looked over in the direction of the door. Peridot’s face flushed bright red as she realized that the pirate had caught her, and it was only made worse by the wink directed towards her. The princess almost shrieked with embarrassment, ducking out of the window of the door and scampering back to the bed, diving onto the soft mattress and barely resisting the urge to hide again.

Fucking hell, she couldn’t be attracted to a  _ pirate. _

But she was, and that was the most humiliating revelation that she had ever come to in her short seventeen years of life. She covered her reddened face with her hands and made a strangled noise of frustration and embarrassment - she couldn’t believe that she had actually  _ accepted _ this, and gotten  _ caught staring. _ This was so many different shades of unfair; the circumstances were completely out of control and she was stuck on a ship with the object of her affections for the next month. Unless her attraction started wearing off based on pure overexposure to Lapis Lazuli, there was no way she could just  **ignore** it for a month.

Maybe she could at least find some way to let it out, write her thoughts down so they could be kept track of. With a heavy, tired sigh, she hopped off of the welcoming softness of the bed and walked over to the bookshelf in the quarters - there had to be  _ some _ blank journal somewhere, right? It would be easily replaced if it was needed for logs or keeping track of food stocks or something. Captains were supposed to keep a log of their voyages, anyway; that was how it always worked in books, so there was bound to be a spare journal or two tucked away in the confines of the bookshelf.

Books were carefully taken out, studied, then neatly put back where she had found them. There were dictionaries, various books on sciences (specifically marine biology and oceanography), books of maps, even a few instructional books regarding art and music. A heavily annotated Bible specifically caught her attention; various inaccuracies and notes were highlighted and jotted down in the margins of the pages. She was learning more about Lapis Lazuli looking through her books than she had just talking to her; she was evidently more creative and intelligent than she was letting on, her handwriting curled and slanted and ever so slightly messy. There was probably some pagan way to analyze it, but Peridot didn’t care much to figure it out for the moment.

With a small “Aha!,” she located a small amount of journals and a box of pens tucked away in the corner of the bottom shelf of the case. Most of them were written in, and Peridot had to beat down her own curiosity; she came to find a log for her own thoughts, not to spy on the captain’s. Taking her treasures and seating herself on the bed once more, the princess began to write.

“Log date 7-22 (I think)-1719. I was kidnapped by some idiots with malicious intent approximately four or five days ago, and kept in their dirty ship for three days, after which I was rescued by some more competent pirates led by Miss Lapis Lazuli, the Phantom Siren or whatever it is they call her. Her ship is called the Crystalled Mirror. I suppose there isn’t much for me to complain about, really; the crew is friendly enough and they intend to return me to Delmarva in about one month’s time.

“Perhaps the worst thing about my current situation is my… attraction to Lapis Lazuli. She is beautiful, strong, kind, admirable, if cocky and rough around the edges. I am actually currently using one of her blank journals. I would say that I hope that she doesn’t mind, but considering the thoughts of her that currently plague my mind I shouldn’t care how she feels. I have only known her for two days, and I can only assume that this is a temporary attraction. I’m hoping it goes away before it becomes noticeable. She saw me staring.

“I’m doomed. Peridot, out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what a gay bean smh
> 
> also my birthday is july 22nd that's why i used that


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper sticks her nose into other people's business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my jam is lapis & jasper being total assholes to each other but deep down caring. they are my brotp in any situation but the canon one.

“Lapis, you useless lesbian, stop daydreaming about the princess of Delmarva and get your ass over here. We’re a little off course and need to be turned back to the east.”

The captain, her thoughts interrupted by the sudden booming voice of Jasper, felt her face turn red at having been caught. It wasn’t uncommon for her to zone out and stare off into the distance, at the waves and the horizon, on slow days where there was nothing but sailing ahead, but it  _ was _ uncommon for her to have a small smile on her face while she did so. Perhaps that side effect had only been brought on by her thoughts about Peridot… which was humiliating in itself. She couldn’t believe she was allowing herself to become attracted to a fucking  _ royal _ , especially now that she had caught the blonde staring.

“What makes you think I was thinking about  _ her _ ?,” Lapis responded in a voice she tried to keep devoid of all emotion, walking to the wheel and sighing slightly as she got a good grip on the familiar worn and weathered wood. She didn’t thoroughly understand why Jasper couldn’t just get the ship back on track herself; every member of the crew had a general understanding of how to steer it in case of emergency. Maybe the meathead just wanted to harass her about what she considered to be unfounded ideas and fantasies - she wouldn’t put it past her.

“You get this goofy look on your face whenever you talk about her. Kinda like when you’re thinking about a plunder,” the bigger woman responded, pulling herself onto the edge of the deck. Lapis wanted to yell at her about how dangerous that was and how she would  _ not _ be wasting a buoy to pull her back to safety, but in all honesty, she kind of hoped the brute would fall. “And as your first mate, friend, and occasional fuckbuddy, it is my unspoken moral obligation to give you a hard time about any and all potential romantic, sexual, or general attractions.”

“I think that’s the most official I’ve ever heard you sound,” the captain huffed, unamused, keeping a careful eye on the empty ocean ahead of her and occasionally glancing at the compass she always had strung around her neck and nestled between her breasts. That was all the reply she was going to be giving Jasper for the moment; she was the head of a feared crew and she did  _ not _ have time to deal with her first mate being difficult. (That probably wouldn’t last long, considering she was known for getting defensive and being a firecracker when provoked or confronted.)

“I have my moments,” the brute gave her a sleazy grin, reaching over to flick her nose. Lapis scrunched up her face, barely resisting the urge to turn and glare or lash out with one fist. That would probably only result in her getting her hand broken, anyway. “Seriously, though, I don’t know what you see in that girl. Maybe she’s a virgin and soft enough to be attractive, but she’s all uppity and scares too easy. If you were to bed her, she’d probably be freaking out about what her mother would think the entire time, and I don’t think it’s worth the time of somebody experienced as you.”

The hybrid’s face turned bright red, and she couldn’t do much besides glower down at the crashing waves. The wind was working against them, but the ship was turning back to the east; they would be back headed where they needed to go soon. “Who says I want to fuck her? Maybe I’m just concerned for her and want to keep her safe. And maybe make her smile. Or blush. Maybe both.”

Jasper scoffed and slid off the edge where she was seated, taking a step back to the captain and bending over so that she could look her in the eyes (not that Lapis was making any effort to make any sort of eye contact to begin with) - she was about three feet taller and a hell of a lot bigger. “Okay, maybe sex isn’t your primary motive, but there’s definitely  _ something _ going on. You never take this much interest in somebody you just met - hell, I’ve known you for about two years now, and you  **still** aren’t all that concerned about my wellbeing. Or Amethyst’s, Pearl’s, Ruby’s, Sapphire’s…”

“That’s because all of you can take care of yourselves,” Lapis replied with a large amount of annoyance. “You’re experienced on the sea, you’re experienced on the land, I’ve taught you all how to steer and direct the ship - not to mention you came out to the life of piracy on your own terms. Peridot is royalty. She’s been coddled and given everything on a silver spoon for her entire life. She was kidnapped into this. She’s afraid, confused, and she has no clue what the fuck is going on most of the time. I need to make sure she’s okay, or she’ll have a breakdown or something.”

“You’re being sympathetic towards a privileged little priss. Jesus, Lap, screw the whole attraction thing, are you feeling okay? You coming down with something?” She reached over to put a hand on Lapis’ forehead and feel for her temperature, but the captain ducked out of the way before she could and stuck out her tongue. It was true she had a bit of a tendency to grumble about royals and nobles and everything in between; in truth, the fact that the blonde princess was cute was probably the only reason that she hadn’t been outright mean to her thus far.

“Maybe I just feel like being nice!,” she defended defiantly, checking the compass and the open waters ahead once more. They were almost on track, then she could storm off and try to find an unoccupied room to lock herself in for the next hour or so while she cooled off; unfortunately, the only place she could think of where she would be mostly left alone was in the captain’s quarters.

“You are not nice. Kind and charitable towards people you feel sorry for or have treated  _ you _ with respect, maybe, but I’ve never seen you have any sort of sympathy towards any princess. And even when you  _ are _ good to people, you’re quick tempered and rough around the edges.” Jasper frowned, muscular arms crossing over her chest. She almost seemed…  _ upset, _ and the pirate couldn’t really figure out why. While the first mate did usually stick her nose in other people’s business, she didn’t normally get this intrusive and invasive about it, almost as if she was concerned.

Or jealous?

“Look. Maybe I  _ do _ kind of like Peridot. But if I do, it isn’t like it’s any of your business.” Checking her compass to make sure they were back where they needed to be, she tucked the object away back into the front of her shirt and turned to Jasper. She was getting more and more frustrated with every moment the brute decided it was a good idea to press her or even just be in her general area. “And if I do, I probably won’t pursue it. It would be like suicide with the possibility of being captured - and I would have to come visit her on land far more often than I like being off the seas to make it work. Even if I was able to keep my disguise and facade going, it’s illegal for a peasant to regularly associate with a royal. Unless she were to make me a part of her navy or something like that, there’s no way I would ever be able to make anything work. It would be setting myself up for destruction, or a broken heart. And, as the Phantom Siren, I really don’t have the sort of time to deal with either.”

Jasper snorted at her rant, raising an eyebrow and watching her with skeptical amber eyes. “While I can appreciate the fact that you’re actually thinking and making decisions based on logic,” she began carefully, and the pirate almost appreciated the way that she was trying not to offend her. Lapis never thought of herself as someone her crew should fear, as her threats to make someone walk the plank for something as petty as eating her fish were always empty, but at least her temper was being spared a tantrum for the moment. “Knowing you, if you don’t try to stay away and keep out of it, you’re going to end up going back on everything you just said. You aren’t exactly the most thoughtful person, Lapis - I don’t think you’ve ever carried out a plan without making a couple of rash decisions.”

The conversation had reached its most frustrating point, mainly because the pirate could tell that her friend wasn’t wrong at all. She and Jasper had their disagreements, some more toxic and angry than others, but there was absolutely no denying that the brute knew her fairly well. Lapis huffed angrily and began storming off below deck, only turning to state that she didn’t want to be followed until the sun had been down for one hour and it was time for everyone to go to sleep.

Part of her hoped that Jasper felt bad for confronting her and chewing her out for reasons she couldn’t really see, or that she was at least afraid of punishment. Most of her, however, was frustrated that she had been given such food for thought. It was true that she was impulsive, yes, and that she very rarely went through with what she said she would do when it came to relationships with other people. But that didn’t really give her any right to start confronting her about it!

She was baffled. She didn’t understand why the brute had acted so strange  - the conversation had started out with her being her usual vulgar and frustrating self, and had ended with her being… concerned and frustrated. In the years she had known the brute, never before had any worry gone into her wellbeing; even a few playful suggestions like jumping into shark filled waters had taken place. Lapis honestly had no idea what was going on, and that partially scared her and partially made her angry. She had half a mind to stomp back up to the deck and demand an explanation. Knowing that would end badly, though, the captain simply flopped onto a cot to rot in her own mindspace for the next several hours.

Which was probably dangerous to her own health and safety, but whatever.

Lapis wished she could walk to the edge of the deck and jump into the ocean; swimming normally calmed her down, it being the soothing element that half of her blood had come from and the other half had mastered and raised her on. Unfortunately, though, the ship wouldn’t be anchored so she could go for a swim in mile-deep waters, and one of the abilities she had not inherited from her siren mother was the ability to breathe underwater, as much as she wished she could.

Speaking of her siren half…

The captain carefully pulled her shirt up to expose her belly and sides, running one hand along the smooth skin. The familiar cool texture of scales was fairly easy to locate, just under her breasts and almost on her side. She frowned slightly; most of the time, the scaly patches on her body were covered and camouflaged by an extra layer of skin. If they were visible, then they might have been reacting to sirens in the area. A preemptive warning sign that, combined with Sapphire’s ability to predict the future, had saved the asses of her crew more than a few times by allowing her to sail out of the way.

If her body was telling her the truth, then soon enough she would have much bigger problems to worry about than her meathead first mate trying to tell her what to do with her life. But she couldn’t veer from this course, lest the Crystalled Mirror’s voyage be delayed even further and prevent them from reaching Delmarva for an extra three days at the very least…

With a heavy sigh, she let her shirt fall back into position and rose to her feet. She would worry about that when the time came to it; the scales weren’t visible in too big of an area. She had a while before she would really need to consult with Sapphire and discuss whether or not to move out of the way.

For now, it was nearing dinnertime, and she supposed Peridot would need to have some food brought to her soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> possibly? regular updates? over the summer? possibly?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Peridot's going to take one risk in her life...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UGH sorry if this chapter is poorly paced and short. I just got a kitten yesterday so he's had my undivided attention that would've otherwise been taken up by writing. Once I get used to having him around a little bit (so probably by the next update) my usual quality will be back.

Peridot didn’t realize that she had been scribbling furiously in her new log for hours about every single miserable experience she had gone through in the last several days until she noticed the daylight streaming in through the window becoming more of an orange tint. Glancing up and blinking slightly, she realized that the sun was setting and she wouldn’t be able to write any further soon - and even if it wasn’t sunset, the sharp pang of hunger in her stomach probably would have notified her that it was getting late. She considered leaving the captain’s quarters and trying to find the kitchen, but it wasn’t very difficult for her to decide to bide her time and wait for Sapphire or Lapis to bring her food.

Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long, the door of the captain’s quarters opening just a few minutes after she put down the journal. Peridot glanced up from fiddling with her fingers, finding with an odd mixture of relief and anxiety that it was the very pirate she had been thinking about that entered the room. Lapis gave her a small smile, though her cheeks were tinted a little red - which the princess had to wonder about, really, because she couldn’t think of any reason for the captain to be blushing. A bowl of stew and a silver spoon were handed to her, which she took into her hands with a grateful nod - she was hungry enough that she began shovelling the food into her mouth right away, though she made an effort towards being more dainty with it than she had with the bread.  
“For a royal, you sure don’t act much like one,” the captain commented, sitting down on the bed and leaning back, resting her weight on her elbows. “You’re too coarse to be a princess and too weak and inexperienced to be anything else. It’s strange. Most people are either exceedingly dainty or a little too rough around the edges.” She watched Peridot with her head tilted, and she squirmed under the watchful gaze of the pirate - she couldn’t help but feel like her soul was being examined.

“Was that an insult?,” was the reply she managed to conjure up, keeping her gaze settled on her food. She didn’t have the patience to humor this rapscallion being more of an asshole towards her; she didn’t really care for any excuses that might have been present.

Lapis shrugged and shook her head. “Just an observation,” she responded casually, releasing her weight in order to lay down on the mattress. Peridot joined her on the bed then, sitting cross legged beside her with her stew in her lap; admittedly, the more she was around the captain, the more casual and easy she felt around her. As if they had met before at some point and just needed to get used to each other again, or something like that - it was a strange way of thinking, but it was the best way Peridot could think to explain it. Maybe they’d met in another life.

“Your observations can be very rude if you don’t keep them to yourself,” the princess grumbled, ducking her head slightly. “I’m sure you don’t need or want etiquette lessons from me, but I think it would be in your best interest to keep your mouth shut occasionally. You may end up getting yourself into a fight you can’t win.” Briefly, she imagined the feisty pirate getting into a fight with a group of her mother’s guards - if she had held her own against much of a crew of burly men, she supposed she would be able to handle it to an extent, but the army reached a very hard to access limit. She shook her head slightly, finding the image to be far too upsetting (for whatever reason), and turned her full attention back to the captain, who was studying her carefully - she blushed a little under her gaze.

“Why, Peridot, I haven’t run into a fight I can’t win yet. I was raised on the seas and taught to be tough and a fighter from a very young age. You need to know how to be outnumbered and know how to be quick and agile when you’re a female pirate - I could take on pretty much any big brutish man that decides it would be a good idea to pick on me and my crew,” Lapis responded haughtily, resting one fist against her chest - Peridot couldn’t help but sigh heavily at how cocky she was. Maybe it was rather attractive, but she was going to end up getting herself killed with an attitude like that.

“All the training in the world won’t save you from storms, or entire armies, or whatever sea creatures your precious ocean is hiding from you,” the blonde grumbled, poking at the last of her food with her spoon. She didn’t mean to get into so many arguments over power with the pirate - really, she wasn’t entirely sure why she kept doing it. Pride, maybe, or a deep rooted belief that she was always right thanks to her extensive education.

“Maybe not, but it’ll sure go a long way before somebody comes to help me out,” Lapis shrugged as she spoke before rising to her feet, walking to the table where Peridot had been writing and picking up the book her script was scrawled across. The princess’ face went beet red, and she barely managed to bite down the urge to jump up and retrieve her journal from her host’s grasp - the pirate must have noticed the expression on her face, because she smirked. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to read it. I just want to see what your handwriting looks like - and you really should have asked my permission before you stole a log,” she shook her head slightly, opening up to the first page - the princess prayed that she had been honest with her and wouldn’t snoop on her thoughts, because she honestly didn’t think that her heart could take the humiliation of having her attraction known.

“It’s the twenty third,” the pirate corrected before snapping the book shut, giving the princess a small smile. “But you  _ do _ have nice handwriting. It’s more messy than I expected. Maybe I’ll start asking you to keep the records now. It’ll give you something useful to do and it’ll give me more time to do actual captain stuff.” She set down the journal back on the table, tapping her fingers against her knee - Peridot couldn’t help but watch. She had a tendency to fidget with her hands sometimes, a habit that the princess was just now noticing and committing to memory.

“Thank you,” was all she could think to reply, glancing away - this was a mistake, as she hadn’t noticed Lapis get up and approach her until she turned her head back and found the pirate’s face mere inches from her own. The princess let out a startled squeak and jerked back, almost falling onto her back as she stared at the older of the two with wide eyes. “Jesus Christ, have you ever heard of personal space?!,” she spluttered, face turning bright red again. The close proximity was overwhelming, and Peridot couldn’t help but stare at the raven haired beauty’s lips.

“Nope,” the older of the two responded in a joke that was either playful or sarcastic or both and stuck her tongue out for a split second, but did relent and back up a couple steps. “Sorry, though. I was just trying to see your eyes. I’ve met many people with green eyes, but never so bright as yours. Are you mixed with something non human, by any chance? A witch or a dragon or something of the sort, maybe?” She tilted her head and sat on the bed next to Peridot again.

“Why do you keep changing the subject?,” the younger huffed, a little aggravated but not enough to make her angry or snippish, which was probably a good thing. “But no, not that I know of. I don’t particularly remember my father, but I’m pretty sure he’s human - and aren’t witches and dragons and sirens and stuff just myths, anyway?” She puffed her cheeks out - sure, there were rumors of the mythological creatures in caves, oceans, and forest a ways away from the kingdoms, but she’d always assumed they were just that - mythological. Very few stories were based in fact, she knew that.

“Nah, they’re pretty real,” the pirate responded with a small frown, and Peridot noticed that she subconsciously reached under her shirt - did she have a scar there from one of the mentioned creatures, or something of the sort? The princess wanted to ask, but she figured that might have been rude. “I guess you’ll find out soon enough, though. There are some stories that were invented by human leaders to scare their subjects into obedience or explain away some natural disaster, but there are plenty of stories that are based in truth as well - I guess I can understand where your doubt comes from, though. If one creature is a lie, what would keep the others from being so, too?”

The royal nodded slightly, a bit elated that Lapis understood - she’d always put effort into being a reasonable woman with her beliefs purely rooted in fact, but she supposed that paranoia and the strict rules placed over her head had prevented her from actually looking into a large amount of the stories. “I suppose I will have to begin actually researching in person, then. Maybe my mother will actually allow me outside of the palace walls now that I’ve survived spending a lot of time on a pirate ship.”

“Or maybe she’ll be more protective of you now that you’ve been kidnapped and returned for money,” Lapis shrugged, leaning back to lay down - Peridot couldn’t help but wonder how she was comfortable enough around her to put herself in such a vulnerable position. She probably knew that she could overpower the royal any day, or she didn’t think that Peridot had it in her to attack - both of which were true, in all honesty, and the princess was unable to think of any sort of motive she would have for attacking the pirate, anyway. They were in the middle of the ocean, on a boat the blonde had no clue how to steer and surrounded by Lapis’ closest allies.

Maybe she was a little  _ too _ used to people exercising unnecessary caution.

Either way, the silence that followed for a little while as Peridot finished her dinner was straddling the fine line between comfortable and awkward, and every time the blonde glanced at Lapis she blushed a little further. She’d always prided herself on being someone with impulse control, but she supposed if she was going to take one risk in her life…

She leaned over and lightly brushed her lips against Lapis’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god lapis you cant just ask people why their eyes are bright green


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a makeout in this chapter.

It all happened, honestly, way too fast. One moment Lapis was laying on her back, thinking and very vaguely aware of Peridot sitting next to her; the next, a pair of thin but soft lips had been pressed against her own. The kiss was a surprise and, honestly, not all that bad of one; it took all of the pirate’s self control to not grab the back of the princess’ head and tug her into a deeper contact, wanting very much to just yank her forward and make out with her like this was the only girl she was ever going to get to kiss. The only thing that held her back, really, was the knowledge that she was currently committing a major crime - she didn’t normally care about following the law, but the last thing in the world she wanted was to be arrested and executed for kissing the princess instead of something more badass.

So why wasn’t she pulling away? Why was she, in some sense,  _ enjoying _ this? She had no idea, but whatever it was made her want to stay in place and kiss Peridot forever. It wasn’t until the princess pulled away for air that Lapis slipped off the bed and took several steps towards the center of the room, a death glare the likes of which would terrify the Kraken directed towards her. The blonde seemed reasonably frightened by the expression, scooting backwards on the bed several spots.

“What the  _ fuck _ was that.” It wasn’t a question, though it was phrased as such, the pirate wiping off her mouth with the back of her hand - if she tried to do so with her fingertips, she would inevitably linger on the spot for a while. Her cheeks developed a ruddy tint, though she did her best to ignore it in favor of looking absolutely furious instead. Kissing, as a concept, didn’t bother her; she’d kissed many, both those she knew and those she didn’t, for the sake of getting something she wanted - she knew, though, that for people of class and people with standards, lip to lip contact was a big deal. Treason aside, that was a good chunk of the reason she was pissed.

“A kiss?,” Peridot responded, pulling her knees up to her chest and hiding her face. “I mean, you’re really pretty and I’ve never had a kiss before. So I guess I wanted my first one to be with somebody who I like and think is pretty instead of somebody that’s chosen for me.”

“I’ve known you for  _ two days _ !” Though she did feel touched, and impressed by the nerve of this princess, she couldn’t help but be distressed in several different ways. “I’m a pirate that just got into an argument with you about the corruption of your kingdom! I mean, I know I’m pretty, and you’re pretty too, that’s kind of a given, but there’s no way you can know by now if you  _ like _ me. And you didn’t even  _ ask _ before you kissed me - and there’s no way that was legal in any way, shape, or form. I could be  _ executed _ if anybody finds out because you decided to kiss me.”

“You could be executed for piracy and murder too, if anybody finds out you’re the one doing it,” her voice was in a grumble, but she must have gotten over her fear when she realized that Lapis wasn’t going to hurt her. “And I can too know if I like you. It isn’t that hard. It feels like I’ve known you way longer than just a couple days, too. I feel like I’ve known you for, I dunno, a few lifetimes.”

“At least getting arrested for piracy and murder would be honorable. Getting arrested for kissing a princess is just petty.” The pirate pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. “And that’s bullshit. It’s probably just an attraction based on how I look and the fact that I saved your life. As soon as I drop you off back in Delmarva, you’ll forget you ever knew me.” She sighed heavily, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear and turning her attention to the window. Her expression was losing heat, and she knew it - the ocean was far easier to concentrate on.

In truth, it  _ did _ feel to her a little bit like she had known Peridot for longer than just these couple of days - but she didn’t believe in previous lives, soulmates, or any of that tomfoolery. She wasn’t even really sure if she believed in love and romance; at least, not for herself. She’d experienced sexual attraction, sure, but never a romantic one; she had never been in love, except perhaps platonically. She wanted desperately to pin her interest in the princess onto something else; she was attractive, sure, but that didn’t really explain why her heart was thudding a little too loudly and an excessive warmth was spreading through her chest. That didn’t explain why she wanted to hold Peridot close and protect her.

“What’s the harm, then, if I’m only going to forget about you? Why are you so upset about me kissing you if it isn’t going to mean anything in the long run?” A frown had appeared on the blonde’s face, and she got up to gently take hold of Lapis’ shoulders. The pirate tensed a bit at the touch, but didn’t flinch away; in truth, she  _ was _ getting a little more comfortable, and was frustrated with herself for it. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go on this trip. “I’m not the sort of girl to kiss and tell, Lapis. I promise that my mother and her army will never find out about anything that happens on this ship. Unless you put my life in deliberate danger or something like that.”

“And that won’t happen,” the older girl promised with a heavy sigh, rubbing her temples. With every word that Peridot spoke, her resolve wavered; really, as embarrassing as it was, the only thing holding her back was the fear of being tattled on. The knowledge that her chance of getting busted for kissing the princess was dwindling was a massive relief for Lapis, and made her more willing to try and sort out what these feelings were. Later, though; for the moment, she needed to make up for snapping at the blonde about it; one arm snaked around her waist, and the pirate realized with growing fondness that the younger girl was warm and soft. She gently dipped her, watching green eyes give her a slightly confused and startled look before gently pressing their lips together once more.

This time, the kiss was gentler, but also deeper in some strange way. Lapis had only been intending for this contact to be brief and calm, but when smaller arms wrapped around her neck and the princess’ body was pressed against hers, she couldn’t help but gently lay Peridot down and kneel over her. The kiss was broken only a few times so that the two could gasp for breath, and hands began wandering over sides, abdomens, thighs, hips. The pirate was a little concerned, but every time she thought to ask how the princess was doing, she was pulled in a little deeper. Lapis moved so that she could hold herself up, hands placed on either side of Peridot’s head.

They were only interrupted by the door to the quarters suddenly swinging open, and neither were given time to react properly. The captain quickly turned her head, eyes like those of a deer as she stared at Sapphire, who looked to be rather frantic about something - Lapis didn’t think she’d ever seen that level of controlled fear on the cook’s face. “Am I interrupting something?,” the woman asked coolly, in a tone comparable to that of a mother trying to keep her child from getting frightened.

Lapis wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, glancing down at the pale girl underneath her and back up at Sapphire. A bit reluctantly, she rose to her feet and brushed off her button-up and pants. “No,” she lied calmly, walking over to the open door and crossing her arms. “Why? What’s wrong? Do you need my help with something?” She hoped concern was clear in her voice, a frown appearing across her face - she felt a little bad for abandoning the blonde so quickly, but glancing back told her that Peridot was sitting up on the bed, watching with some curiosity.

Instead of responding, Sapphire grabbed onto her wrist and tugged her to a small area between the edge of the deck and the side of the cabin. It wasn’t until Lapis was able to get a good look on her that she noticed the blue scales beginning to creep up the side of her neck. The captain swallowed dryly, already able to figure out what this was all about. “We’re going to head into siren territory if we keep this course. The crew will be lured into the ocean and drowned when they hear the song. We need to turn, take a different direction, I don’t care, we can’t roll over these waters.”

“If we turn, it’ll take us an extra week to get to Delmarva, even longer if we need to stop,” Lapis hissed, though she did subconsciously feel the scales underneath her shirt. “We can’t take another course, Sapphire. We’ll just have to restrain everybody belowdeck.” She frowned, hugging herself lightly - she had never gone into siren territory before, so she really had no clue how something like this was supposed to go down; she assumed, though, that it wouldn’t be all that difficult to restrain everyone. The only real problem she could see was Jasper, whose strength was unmatched.

Sapphire twitched slightly, clearly annoyed. “It’s not that easy. It doesn’t matter how intelligent somebody is. They  _ will _ be overcome by the sirens’ song.” She sighed heavily and scratched lightly at the scales blossoming over her skin. “I can’t make you change course, but I think it would be in our best interest. I think getting the princess home late would be better than never getting her home at all. We won’t be able to restrain anybody for long.”

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Lapis scoffed, though she couldn’t deny that the cook’s words were making her more than a little concerned. The last thing she wanted to do was lose any member of her crew or the princess they were escorting; she didn’t know if she would be able to handle it. She was stubborn, though, and definitely believed that she would be able to get everybody to safety quickly; she would take all the precautions necessary to make sure that every woman aboard the ship would make it safely to their destination. “We’re remaining on course, and no siren is going to stop us from getting where we need to be. Thanks for letting me know, though.”

“You don’t  _ understand _ the gravity of the situation,” Sapphire close to snapped, grabbing onto Lapis’ shoulders and staring her down with an all too serious look on her face. It made the pirate want to squirm and run off. “Lapis, sirens aren’t anything that any of us can handle. They’re not  _ human. _ They’re ruthless and soulless and will attack regardless of who you are. Our fathers were only spared because our mother wanted a plaything, do you understand?” Bangs were moved out of her eyes, revealing that one light blue eye was staring the captain down with seriousness and almost fear, the other a gaping hole where their mother had torn it out in a rage.

Well, if Sapphire had been aiming to scare the shit out of Lapis, it had worked - not that there was any way the younger of the two would admit to it, of course. She pulled herself out of the cook’s grip, backing away several steps. “We are staying on course,” she repeated firmly, despite every reasonable thread in her brain demanding her not to. “I am a pirate. I have been one since I was a child, and I have run this ship since I was seventeen. I am not afraid of some sirens that think they own the waters, and you shouldn’t be, either.”

With that, she tore herself from Sapphire’s grip and walked away, though she couldn’t quite break away from the heavy sinking feeling in her chest that told her she was making a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw u were making out w a princess and ur cook tells u about sirens smh


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the delay, but this chapter is 4k words long and also i stayed up until one am writing it so hopefully this makes up for it a little.

The morning was grey and overcast, with the heavy smell of rain in the air. Though the clouds weren’t quite dark enough to suggest a storm, there was certainly going to be some precipitation that day, and Lapis supposed she was alright with that so long as they weren’t sent far off course again. She was handling the wheel, whistling contentedly as Peridot - who had finally been convinced to come outside - sat beside her and Pearl examined the map with all of the concentration one would expect from such a perfectionist. There was a certain air of calm on the ship, and it was welcome considering what everyone was now aware they were driving towards.

Well, almost everyone. Peridot hadn’t been notified for fear of causing her to panic, and so she was seated calmly, writing in the journal she had claimed for her own; there were several points where she would frequently glance at Lapis while scribbling down notes, and the pirate would be tempted to steal the log and read some of what was being written, but she never did; the princess deserved some sort of privacy, after all. She had, at some point, shown Lapis a picture which she had drawn of part of the crew; she wasn’t the best artist, but it warmed the captain’s heart nonetheless (even if most of them were drawn in very crude ways highlighting their worst characteristics).

“What’s with the blue on your neck?” Peridot suddenly asked, standing up in order to investigate the scales that had begun forming against the pirate’s skin. Lapis gulped slightly, her mouth settling into a straight line - she hadn’t been expecting to be asked that question, but considering they were nearing actual siren territory and her skin was beginning to appear more siren than woman, she supposed it should have been expected. It was still a little rude, though.

“I’m half siren,” the pirate responded as calmly as she could, keeping her gaze trained on the waters ahead. She wracked her mind for some way to break the news that their lives were in danger easily to the princess, but eventually decided to just be honest with her. “We’re going into siren territory, and my body reacts to it. Sapphire’s does, too; she’s my half sister.” She glanced at Peridot and frowned when she noticed the look of confusion and vague panic on her face; of course she would have known that going into waters where sirens lived was essentially a suicide mission. “Don’t worry about it, though. As soon as we get too close for comfort, we’re locking everybody below deck and you in my quarters. Everybody is going to be safe and make it out of this alive.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt; truth be told, she had only been over the home of the ocean’s most dangerous beauties once in her life, and it was when she was three years old.

Most of her father’s crew had died, and a year was the longest she’d stayed on land while he searched for new seafaring men. The two of them had only been spared because Lapis was half siren and none of the children of the sea wanted one of them harmed or helpless.

Still, Peridot sounded so hopeful when she spoke again. “So you’ve done this before,” she commented as if pleased and relieved that the older woman knew when she was doing - it pained the pirate how trusted she was, that this royal was putting her life in her hands with very little actual questioning involved. It was nice, if a little guilt inducing - so to keep up the lie, she nodded.

“The last time was when I was a child, though,” she explained, careful to lace her lie in with the truth; that way it would be more plausible. “I wasn’t the one in charge, my father was. I do retain some knowledge on what to do, however. If his entire crew turned out fine, then so will mine.” Lapis turned her gaze back to the sea with a small frown, watching the waves crash against the weathered wood of her ship. She felt bad for lying, she really did; it was never something she enjoyed, not even when it helped her rake in some income and build her reputation further.

Peridot gave her a wide and trusting grin before going back to scribbling notes in her journal, and the pirate’s heart lurched in her chest, She was so adorable, so  _ attractive, _ even, that it hurt Lapis to think about it; why did she have to want the one woman she could never have? Was she really so determined to run herself into the ground, kill herself from the inside out with heartbreak and by being so fucking overdramatic about all of this. She still believed it was a passing attraction; that was what her mind told her, even if her heart screamed differently at her.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when a distant tune reached her ear; the faraway sound of a woman singing, which she knew for a fact was improbable in the middle of the ocean. Lapis thanked her lucky stars that her hearing was able to pick up on a siren’s song quicker than a full human’s (something about being able to track down her school and regroup), suddenly grabbing Peridot by the elbow and aiming her gun into the sky to shoot three blanks; the signal for her crew to get their asses below deck and for Sapphire to lock and block the door from the outside. The princess flinched at the gunshots and gave Lapis a startled, afraid, and confused look, but the pirate had not enough time to apologize and give a satisfactory explanation, simply gently guiding Peridot to the bed and laying her down there. She knew that she wouldn’t stay there for long and would be throwing herself against the door and the windows fairly soon, but at least she would be comfortable before she went batshit.

“We’re getting close to the sirens’ area. Three gunshots is the crew’s warning to get below deck before we can cross over dangerous waters. It drowns out the sound and it’s a signal that everybody recognizes.” She glanced out the window and towards the turbulent sea; the instinct to run and jump in and join her aunts in singing and luring was overwhelming, but she was determined to remain strong. “I’m not going to tie you down, because I’m sure that you’re not strong enough to break open a door or heavy enough to break the window. Trust me, it’s going to be fine.”

Peridot frowned, but nodded in response, and the pirate turned on her heel in order to leave the room. Resting one hand on the hilt of her sword, safely rested at her hip, she made her way back up to the ship’s wheel. She didn’t think that the blade would do any good against the immortal mistresses of the sea, but she supposed it was worth a shot; if it came to a point where she had to fight for the safety of her ship and her crew, then she would under any circumstances. Lapis supposed that this was the biggest downside to having a group of homosexual women rather than men.

“I don’t think this will end well,” a calm voice spoke behind her, making her jump and turn quickly - Sapphire had approached silently as she began steering again, standing just behind with a concerned frown on her face. “Everyone is locked away behind deck, and I tied Jasper and Ruby to a pole because I’m certain they’ll be the first two to try and break a door open. Hopefully they don’t end up breaking the ship and causing a fatal error.”

“I told you not to be so pessimistic,” Lapis sighed heavily, staring out at the churning waters. “Everything is going to turn out fine. We’re half siren; we’re part of them. We’ll be able to keep things under control, and I can fight if not.” She turned her head and gave the cook a small smile before returning her attention to the quiet ocean ahead. Now that their conversation had ended, though, the waters were anything but silent; the faint hum of a somewhat familiar tune being sung was becoming more and more apparent and obvious.

A chorus of hauntingly beautiful women’s voices drifted up from the rocky area around the ship, and Lapis gripped the wheel a little tighter. It was as though a choir of angels had fallen from the heavens in order to give on the performance, and though the pirate knew they were anything but; half of her longed to do a swan dive into the ocean, join the other sirens in their hunt and their song and return to what she knew to be part of her origins. She closed her eyes, feeling a faint tingling sensation on her jaw and neck as the area of scales grew, occupying what was left untouched of her tanned skin.

She had never been through anything like this in her life despite how much experience on the sea she had. The reasonable part of her brain told her that she never wanted to again, but most of her was occupied by the spiritual experience that came with being near other sirens. Lapis glanced back in order to see if Sapphire was feeling similarly despite being mostly out of it, but all she saw was a look of straight mouthed and grim worry on her half sister’s face.

What thoroughly ripped her out of her trance was the loud sound of splintering wood somewhere behind her. The captain’s grip on the wheel suddenly slackened and released as she turned quickly, dark blue eyes scanning the area of the ship where the crash had come from; now that she was aware of what was going on, the previously beautiful choir of sirens had become an unbearable screeching, overwhelmingly loud around her. Overwhelmed by the noise, she clapped her hands over her ears; her heart just about stopped when she noticed a gaping hole in the middle of the deck where she was certain a support beam would have been. For a moment she mourned the damage to her beloved ship, but she rather quickly realized that Jasper and/or Ruby must have just broken free and would probably be trying to break down the door to lead themselves to drowning soon.

The captain quickly shoved Sapphire in front of the wheel to the ship with a brief command to keep them on course, jumping down from her current position in order to land on the lower part of the ship. Instinctively, she drew her sword, but quickly returned it to her sheath; the last thing in the world she wanted was to hurt any one member of her crew. She told herself that it was just because she didn’t want to lose any productivity, but most of her knew that they were her friends and simply had no clue what they were doing. That was not a crime punishable by stab wounds.

The trapdoor to beneath the deck broke open just as she approached it, breaking directly off the deck and almost hitting her in the face. She quickly ducked out of the way with her arms covering her head, vaguely aware of it smashing into the wall of the captain’s quarters and splintering into many, many pieces. “Stop breaking my fucking ship,” she grumbled under her breath, turning to face Jasper, who was looking around with an expression of vague confusion on her face, fist still raised, and a clouded look in her eyes, the rest of the crew behind her. She had to act quickly; they were all in a deep trance caused by the siren’s song, and probably didn’t even recognize her. Reasoning wouldn’t work, and there was no way she could overpower everybody.

So Lapis quickly drew her sword, glancing around for something she could break without risking the lives of everyone on board. Her ship was her most beloved possession, but it could always be repaired; if her friends were to drown, there would be no bringing them back or easily replacing them.

Finding nothing but the sails, she simply held the weapon threateningly and took a few steps towards the other women - none seemed to have any reaction, but she was swiftly formulating a plan in her mind - there were some ropes in the area below the deck, and several spare anchors with them. Jasper and Ruby seemed to still be tied, so they must have only broken the support beam; Lapis silently prayed that the damage to the ship was minimal and nothing would be caving in anytime soon. If she could manage to get past the crew and get the rope and anchors around them, then they might be held there until they were past the territory of the sirens. Unfortunately, the entrance was too small for her to sneak past the crew; she would have to do her best to force past before they made their way up to jump into the deep water and allow the sirens to drown them.

Luck didn’t seem to be on her side, as Jasper seemed to break free from her trance first, stumbling up from the entrance in order to wander onto the deck and towards the edge. Amethyst seemed to follow suit, but far more quickly, scurrying up and hurrying to the edge of the deck. The screeching of the sirens became even louder; deafening to Lapis, but seemingly gorgeous to them. Given the opportunity, she immediately burst past Pearl and Ruby, who were slowly making their way out.

Hoping that she could be quick enough, the pirate sprinted beneath the deck and towards the corner where she knew supplies were held. She was losing athleticism to her proximity to other sirens; she felt dehydrated and weary, the scales on her skin aching for water and adjusting painfully when Lapis gathered rope into her hands. She winced as she began attempting to pull the supplies up from the deck; her physical strength was dwindling, not that she had been able to lift half a dozen anchors at once beforehand. Attempting to adjust her plan was difficult as well with the sirens’ song pounding into her mind and all of her instincts from both halves begging her to jump in.

She settled for taking all the rope she could fit and dragging an anchor along with it. If push came to shove, then she could always go back for more, but she was mainly hoping that the crew would be too disoriented from being all tied together to really do anything.

The pirate dropped the anchor in one corner of the deck and tried to figure out the best way to get Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, and Jasper all in one spot so that she could contain them, but quickly noticed that the thinnest of the four had leaned over the side of the deck so that her cheek could be stroked by a siren and she could be pulled into a kiss. Lapis made a rather embarrassing sound of distress, sprinting over and wrapping her arm around Pearl’s middle so that she could pull her back and shove her more towards the center of the deck. Okay, maybe she would have to manhandle everyone into a position where she could tie the rope around them - she could live with that, probably.

Ruby and Amethyst both gave up a bit more of a fight, and they were far heavier than Pearl, making it nearly impossible to shove them both back at once. Amethyst bit at her hand as if she were a squirming kitten, and Lapis internally promised herself that she would force the short woman to cut back on the rations; eventually, though, she managed to send her tumbling backwards into Pearl with enough force to knock both of them into a sitting position. Ruby was more of a challenge, but shoving her with both hands helped immensely, even though she violently scratched at Lapis’ face and ripped off several scales, leaving the pirate hissing in pain as red dripped down her face. Eventually, though, she was sent skidding into Pearl and Amethyst as well, leaving Jasper as the only one at the edge of the deck.

That… could be a problem.

Lapis wrapped her arms around the hulking woman’s middle, attempting to tug her back, but she didn’t budge; she was massive, and the captain was tiny; that was only to be expected. Pulling with all her might, she attempted to move Jasper back from the edge…

Only to be cut off by a sudden burning pain across her abdomen. She yelped in surprise and jerked back, putting her hand over the source of the pain; blood leaked onto her scales and there was a rip in her shirt that exposed a straight cut that luckily didn’t run deep. With wide eyes, she looked to her first mate, finding that the older woman was clutching a small dagger in her hand that was now stained with the captain’s blood. Lapis hadn’t expected for her to be holding onto a weapon, and thought that she would have to regulate that when this was all over… assuming she could even save Jasper, that was.

“Put down the knife,” she demanded, hoping to God that the bigger female would recognize that she was trying to help but knowing in the back of her mind that the trance was powerful enough that she couldn’t. “Jasper, for once in your  _ fucking _ life, just listen to me.” She dodged another swing of the dagger, moving backwards; maybe she could lure her back with the others? “Get it through that thick skull of yours that this isn’t real. They’ll kill you if you try to kiss them.”

“Something that beautiful couldn’t be evil,” the brute responded in a voice that didn’t sound even remotely like hers, completely void of the usual somewhat humored and sometimes annoyed tone that the first mate usually took on. She swung the dagger again, and Lapis leapt out of the way, glancing back to make sure the three other members of her crew were still subdued; they seemed to be almost done being dazed, but they were still seated on the ground, at least. When she turned back towards the bigger woman, she had quit advancing and made a run for the edge of the deck instead, jumping over it and rushing towards the ocean below.

Lapis had a miniature heart attack as she sprinted forward, barely managing to lean over the edge in time to grab onto the back of Jasper’s shirt. She wheezed a little from the effort of trying to keep her up, bracing her legs against the edge of the deck and trying to pull her back up; it didn’t help whatsoever that the bigger woman was swinging slightly in an attempt to get free. She didn’t manage to make any progress until Sapphire rushed over and grabbed on as well, and with their combined efforts it took several moments to haul Jasper back on deck and push her into the other three, who were beginning to run for the deck again.

It took moments for Sapphire and Lapis to wrap the crew in a rope and anchor, and two more were carried up and added for good measure. And it wasn’t until her sister had returned to the wheel to guide them out of siren territory that the captain remembered Peridot, and the crashing of breaking glass coming from near the captain’s quarters gave her a heart attack.

She sprinted with all the energy she could to the edge of the deck, watching with her blood running cold as the princess fell from the quarters’ windows and into the churning waters below. Lapis was shocked into stillness for just a moment, but quickly leapt from the ship, allowing the icy waters to envelope her and hissing slightly with pain as saltwater entered her wounds and her blood floated in the waters, leaking from where Ruby had scratched and Jasper had sliced. The pirate prayed silently that there were no sharks that would smell her blood and attack, opening her eyes to scan the darkness.

Peridot stuck out like a sore thumb even despite the overcast with her shock of blonde hair and green dress floating around her like a jellyfish. Lapis quickly swam forward and began to reach out to grab the princess’ arm, but was startled when the younger girl was suddenly yanked downward; the pirate didn’t need to look at the clawed and webbed hands on the royal’s ankles to know that a siren had decided to latch onto the only human that she had managed to lure into the water.

Lapis quickly jetted downward, wrapping her arms around Peridot’s waist and kicking at the siren with all her might, effectively knocking her off and earning her enough time to begin swimming upward. She was cut off by the princess squirming, though, and glancing at her showed that she was beginning to go blue in the face from holding her breath and was trying to reach the siren anyway. The pirate tightened her grip and glanced up at the surface, noting that she didn’t have enough time to swim there before the royal ran out of air and it wouldn’t be impossible to filter the air through her barely formed gills in order to transfer it to Peridot and distract her from the full siren at the same time.

_ To hell with it, _ she thought, and sucked in a breath of what little oxygen she could find in the water before pressing her lips against the royal’s. Peridot melted in her arms immediately, pacified and given a fresh breath of air, and Lapis continued to kick her feet, dragging herself and her passenger upwards and towards the sunlight that leaked through the waves. Glancing down, she noticed a bright blue skinned siren with long, flowing navy hair glaring at her before sinking to the depths with her sisters. Silence enveloped the water aside from the occasional bubble or whale song; the ship must have left the area, and the sirens had given up on the last human.

When she broke the surface, she took a deep breath of oxygen and transferred Peridot to her back. She noticed the Crystalled Mirror anchored a ways away, seemingly out of earshot of the sirens’ song but far enough that Lapis completely dreaded having to swim to it. She could do it, certainly; the water was her element, after all, but… she was wounded, she was tired, and she had a princess on her back that was very frightened and clinging to her with all her might.

“I th-thought you s-said everything would be f-fine,” Peridot grumbled through chattering teeth, shivering from both the cold of the water and the fear of what she had just gone through. She clung to the pirate’s back with even more strength as Lapis stopped treading water and began swimming forward, thanking her lucky stars the waves weren’t too tall. “I-I c-can’t believe I w-was put in a t-trance like that… I c-completely lost s-sight of everything b-but the sirens…”

“And everything turned out fine, didn’t it?” the pirate snipped in response, stroking forward with as much speed as she could; more than the average person, but slowed significantly from her usual by her bleeding wounds and the exhaustion in her mind and limbs. “Nobody died, and the worst that happened was you falling in and me getting a little cut up. Nothing went horribly wrong, your highness,” the title was spoken with a bit of a sarcastic sneer; Lapis was annoyed and tired, and she didn’t really like carrying on conversation while swimming. “And yeah, sirens do that to you.”

“... Thank you for saving me again,” the princess grumbled with what seemed like hesitation, in a fairly quiet and meek voice as she hid her face in the back of Lapis’ hair. The pirate’s breath hitched and she almost blushed, a little embarrassed by the shyness with which she had been thanked in.

Stars, she had it bad.

“Don’t mention it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lapis is gay


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis gets all patched up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry again for the delays ;-;

The moment the pirate had tugged them, soaked and tired, onto the deck of the ship, she collapsed and Peridot had to crawl off of her, feeling guilty and maybe a little flustered. The princess quickly rose to her feet, helping Lapis up and assisting her in limping towards the captain’s quarters; a brief glance at the crew told the royal that they were still dazed from the siren attack but mostly uninjured. The ship had been damaged by things that must have happened below the deck, which honestly scared her a little. Sapphire was busy steering the ship, so it was up to Peridot to inspect Lapis’ wounds, clean them, and patch them up so that they wouldn’t get infected.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have much physical strength, so it took most of her effort to escort the pirate into the quarters, and when she finally did make it in the room and to the bed she just let the swashbuckler collapse into the covers with a groan. “Are you alright?” she asked, concerned. Part of her was worried for whether or not the blood would ever come out of the bedspread, and the rest of her internally kicked herself for having such a thought when Lapis was exhausted.

“Just tired,” the pirate responded with a deep sigh, and Peridot reached over to roll her to her back. She flinched slightly at the bloodstained area of her love interest’s clothing, but upon lifting the fabric found with relief that she was no longer bleeding. So long as there was no infection, the pirate would live. Glancing around the room, the princess grabbed some of the light white curtains from the window, tugging until the fabric yanked off of its hanger and neatly into her hand. She felt slightly guilty, but she was aware that they probably existed for aesthetic and decoration; there were no Peeping Toms out in the middle of the ocean, and the thin material didn’t block out much light anyway.

“Here, sit up a little,” the blonde royal commanded, gently pushing Lapis until she groaned and sat up. Peridot looked around once more before ripping a small bit of the fabric off, locating a small bucket of water rather easily. It seemed to be clean and not salty, so she dragged it over to the side of the bed, carefully dipping the cloth into it before lightly pressing it to the pirate’s biggest wound, a slash across her abdomen. She would have liked to have more effective cleaning items nearby, but she had to work with what she had; she doubted there was a decent collection of first aid items anywhere.

Lapis barely winced at the coolness on her injury, but she did grab tightly onto the bedspread. The royal sighed slightly, carefully wiping the blood from the area before carefully wrapping a longer strip around her midsection. “Who did this?” she asked with a small amount of curiosity; these wounds were clearly made from a knife, and while she had been distracted and hypnotized when under the siren’s spell, but she was fairly certain that the undersea maiden hadn’t been wielding one.

“Jasper,” the captain responded with a shrug, as if it wasn’t really a big deal that her first mate had slashed her - and maybe it wasn’t, she considered with a small amount of horror. Maybe this was an everyday thing on the Crystalled Mirror. “She was under the spell, so she was a little more likely to stab me than she normally is. I’m not mad.  _ That _ mad, anyway. I’m definitely going to kick her ass next time we spar, maybe cut  _ her _ up a little and see how she likes it.”

Peridot snorted and rolled her eyes before moving on to a couple of more minor cuts and abrasions on her hands and arms probably caused by ropes and climbing up the side of the ship. She seemed more fatigued than anything else, which was a relief. “I can’t believe you’re joking about getting knifed up. If I were you, I would be completely freaked out about having one of those things near me - and you jumped out into the water after getting cut.” She shook her head slightly, a small smile on her face that quickly faded as the gravity of the situation set upon her. “... Sorry about that, by the way. Jumping out of the ship. That was stupid.”

“It’s alright. You weren’t yourself.” The pirate sat thankfully still as her wounds were dressed, carefully watching the opposite wall and shivering slightly as a strong gust came in through the broken window. “You’d just better hope I can get that fixed. We’re going to have to stop in a town sometime this week just to repair everything that was broken, which might take a long ass time and cost me a lot.”

“Good thing your job is to fight people for their money, then. Are you going to do a raid to make sure you can cover the cost?” Peridot was only half joking, giving Lapis a small grin that faded quickly when the very loud and clear sound of thunder rumbled in from outside. She quickly turned her head to look out the broken window, realizing with a grimace that the rain was going to come in from the ocean outside, but mostly frightened because she’d never heard thunder without walls and windows blocking the noise before and she was afraid that the ship would nearly sink again.

“Don’t tempt me,” Lapis snorted, looking around as if she was going to get up before deciding to simply lay down in the bed, which was probably easier on her injuries. Peridot silently applauded her for making an actual smart decision. “No, we actually have enough funds on the ship to support us for at least that one stop for food and repairs. We might have to do one after we drop you off to make up for it, though, but I won’t make you be on board when that happens. Don’t want our pretty little princess to know that we’re all a bunch of savages.” She then glanced out the window and back at the royal, one eyebrow raised in a questioning look. “What’s wrong, Dottie? Are you scared of the thunder?”

“No!” Peridot spluttered in response, cheeks turning bright pink. “Being afraid of something as natural as thunder would be silly and childish. I’m just worried that we have another big storm approaching, that’s all. Since the ship is damaged I don’t think it would take that very well, right?”

“Don’t have so little faith in this ship,” Lapis scoffed, glancing out to sea. “The clouds aren’t dark enough to indicate a  _ really _ bad storm, probably just some higher than usual waves and a lot of rain. Nothing’s going to go horribly wrong - unless you count everybody getting wet because the only indoor space that doesn’t have any holes in it as of right now can’t fit everybody.” She sighed, watching the clouds and the wind outside with a sort of fondness that Peridot was curious about, but not enough to ask. “Sorry, princess, I know getting your hair messed up is going to be absolutely devastating.”

“My hair has been messed up for about a week, and I haven’t bathed since I was kidnapped,” the royal responded with the most deadpan expression and voice she could muster, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. Saying it out loud mainly served to make her feel more disgusting - she’d never gone this long without scrubbing herself down before, and it was distressing to say the very least. Not that she would let Lapis know that. “I’ve kind of given up caring about whether or not I look and smell nice. … I have had enough water to last me for a while, though, so is there any room for me in wherever it is that’s undamaged?”

“You’re with pirates, you’re gonna have to get used to it,” Lapis responded with a faint snort and roll of the eyes. “But I guess so, yeah, if you don’t mind sharing with Sapphire and Garnet. Babies aren’t supposed to get wet, apparently, or they’ll catch a cold and die or something.” She shrugged before pushing herself to her feet, and Peridot had to resist the urge to run over and force her to lay back down. She did notice, though, that the blue scales that had previously covered the half siren’s skin were starting to fade away into little splashes of color across the otherwise dark complexion. She was beautiful. Damn it. “You could always just stay in here with me, though. If you don’t mind getting splashed a little. We can sit in the bed since it’s the most covered part of the room right now.” She then proceeded to sit back down on the soft surface, crawling into a cross-legged position against the wooden wall and lightly patting the spot next to her, an invitation for the princess to take a seat.

Peridot didn’t need to think on it nearly as long as she would’ve liked - sitting next to the captain that she was beginning to have strong feelings for (or perhaps was beginning to  _ recover _ strong feelings for after a long time away) sounded much more attractive than standing around in the kitchen with the cook and her small daughter. The blonde climbed next to Lapis, sitting in a similar position next to her and staring out the window at the rolling clouds. Almost the moment that she had seated herself, the rain started up and the pirate leaned a little closer to her.

Watching the weather was mesmerizing. The droplets of water sounded so much more natural and relaxing against the ocean waves than it did against any wood or stone or glass that she had sat behind. The clouds darkened the sky so that it seemed so much later than early afternoon, and the occasional lightning flash just outside was startling - but Lapis didn’t seem all that concerned, so she didn’t worry herself on it. The ambiance was… calming, in a way that she wasn’t used to but was glad for, and the company of someone she was fond of only served to make it even better. Silently, Peridot made a mental note to remember this experience long after she was returned home.

“I don’t understand why I’m enjoying being on this ship,” she spoke rather bluntly, making all efforts to avoid eye contact with the older woman. “It’s the exact opposite of everything I was raised on. You and your crew are messy and vulgar, there isn’t much thought towards personal hygiene, and while Sapphire does well with what she has the food is bland. By all means, I should be homesick, but… that feeling has been kind of dampened recently.”

“I guess that’s for you to figure out,” the pirate responded with a shrug, and Peridot made the mistake of looking over at her. Lapis was watching the rain with bright eyes and a small smile, raven hair fluffed around her face and frizzed by the ordeal of the sirens. Momentarily, the princess almost swore that she saw her in another skin, dressed more scantily but with the same expression and her hair neater. She’d met her in another life; she had to have, with how quickly and powerfully romantic feelings had developed and how familiar everything about her felt.

Silence passed between them for a few more moments, and Peridot found herself scooching just a little closer to Lapis, one of the pirate’s thin arms snaking around her waist mere moments later as the two watched the rain together. Warm affection settled into the princess’ chest, a small smile on her face; she was barely even thinking about it as she turned her face to look at the half siren, breath mixing together due to their proximity, and the overwhelming urge to lean forward ever present in the back of the royal’s mind.

“We were interrupted yesterday,” she spoke softly, and one of the pirate’s hands brushed through her hair before carefully cupping her cheek.

“Let’s make up for it, then.”

“Just kissing?”

“Yeah, of course.”

With the affirmation, Peridot closed her eyes and leaned forward, closing the distance between them and gently occupying Lapis’ lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy unholyopossum drew the kids and they look wonderful  
> http://teamchaosprez.tumblr.com/post/147839016302/unholyopossum-theres-this-super-good-fic


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis checks up on her crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a few chapters got taken off the plan to keep the fic from getting too long.

Waking up in her own bed was absolute bliss after sleeping downstairs amidst her snoring crew for a while, but Lapis was a little disappointed that Peridot was no longer curled up against her and sleeping peacefully as she had been when they retired for the night. It was with a soft sigh that she sat up, stretching and yawning - it took her a moment to register the sound of a quill scratching across the parchment of a journal, and when she did, she was a little reassured to know that the princess hadn’t abandoned her and was just taking another log.

“What do you write in those?” the pirate found herself asking as she sat up, stretching with a slight yawn. Brushing her fingers against where there had been a slash earlier, she found that the water had permitted it to heal a little faster, and the wound had scabbed over and decreased significantly in size. That was a relief. She didn’t care much for dealing with pain longer than she had to, mainly because it severely interfered with her ability to do her job and lead her crew. Of course, that brought to mind that she probably ought to check on them and make sure they were doing alright. Having one’s reason pushed down to the back of their mind probably had some negative effects - she couldn’t imagine, of course, being immune to the spell, but it had to suck.

“Mostly the events since the last log was written, but some personal thoughts as well,” the princess responded with a shrug, finishing up the sentence she was writing before closing the book. “I have one back home, too, and I usually don’t skip a day. Writing everything down helps me process what happens more efficiently.” She glanced over at Lapis with her head tilted. “Kind of like how you log what you earn from raids and how much food you have, but for memories instead of material things.”

“Sounds like it could be useful.” The pirate rolled to her feet and stretched, walking over and gently patting the mess of blonde hair atop Peridot’s head. The princess squawked in protest and flailed her arms in an attempt to shake Lapis’ hand off; she rolled her eyes and removed her hand. “I’m going to go check on the crew, so, uh, call me if you need anything, I guess. I’ll come check on you sometime before sundown. It might take me a while to get this ship back up and running.”

The princess pouted, but nodded and went back to writing neat cursive in the book. “Alright. I’m sure I’ll be able to handle myself just fine, don’t worry about me too much,” she grumbled, and Lapis snorted before turning on her heel and leaving the room. There wasn’t much of a difference between the air indoors and the air outside, taking the broken window into consideration, but she was a little glad to be less boxed in and on the deck of her ship. Of course, there was a small amount of annoyance when she realized that the deck was empty with the exception of Pearl, who was already up and about, holding a quill and her personal notebook and jotting down damages to the ship.

“Good morning,” Lapis spoke chipperly, gently reaching up to playfully smack Pearl on the soldier. The older woman glanced at her with her gaze settled into an unamused glare before turning back to the hole in the deck. “I see you’re already hard at work, and I’m going to guess since you’re writing stuff down there’s no estimate on how much repairs will cost. Where are the others?”

“They’re all still asleep belowdeck,” Pearl responded in a tone that could almost pass for apathetic if not for the mild irritation tucked away in her voice. “Which I don’t blame them for. The siren spell took a lot out of them, and it’s the stupidity of our captain that’s to blame. That was a stupid decision, Lazuli, and it could have cost us all our lives. I wish you would think about that instead of rushing into things and forgetting the rest of us aren’t half siren.”

“Don’t insult me, Suzuki. You’re the one who demanded so stubbornly to come aboard.” Lapis spoke through grit teeth, barely resisting the urge to lay a punch somewhere on her quartermaster’s body. “I didn’t know the spell was that powerful; I thought we could all handle it. And we could. Nobody died, did they? We still have six crew members, one princess, and one child on the ship. I was the one who made sure of that - if it wasn’t for Sapphire and I, you’d all be dead in the water right now. I could have just left you to die and continued sailing without looking back.”

“Except you wouldn’t have.” The taller woman rolled her eyes, turning back to her quill and log. “If you had done that, you would be left with an entire ship to yourself, because I seriously doubt that stuffy princess would want to stay in the middle of the ocean longer than necessary and Sapphire wouldn’t want to live without Ruby. Maybe you’d even have a baby to take after by yourself.” She huffed before glaring at Lapis; the captain’s blood was boiling with irritation. “Now, why don’t you go check on the others? I think you owe everyone an apology.”

“I don’t owe anybody shit,” the pirate snapped, quickly turning to walk in the direction of the trapdoor that led below deck. She didn’t particularly enjoy getting talked back to, especially by Pearl, who she believed was convinced she knew everything. But she supposed the quartermaster  _ was, _ technically, correct - Lapis probably needed to apologize to her crew for underestimating the sirens and dragging them all into such a dangerous situation. It had been foolish of her, she supposed, and it had been a mistake that almost cost everyone their lives. She never would have forgiven herself if she’d allowed the five vulnerable drown and made herself alone again.

She winced a little at the wetness of the area below deck, heaving a heavy sigh. Hopefully the wood wasn’t water damaged, as it was a bit more expensive than the stuff exposed to the elements and would be even harder to replace; the last thing she wanted was for somebody to fall into a part of the ship where no human or otherwise was supposed to enter. That would just be another reminder that her stupid mistakes could cost her crew members their lives - speaking of which, all three were rested in their hammocs, fast asleep in varying positions with their snores mixing together.

“Alright, everybody, look alive,” she spoke up, walking over to the nearest woman - Ruby - and gently slapping her face in an attempt to rouse her and get her moving. The other pirate simply groaned and rolled to lay on her other side, and Lapis rolled her eyes, opting instead to flip the hammoc over and make the short pirate land on the ground.  _ That _ certainly woke her up, even if it was with an angered growl and heated glare. “You can’t sleep forever. We’ve got shit to do, damages to control, a lookout tower to man, a ship to steer. I know the siren shit was difficult for you guys to process, but it’s been twelve fucking hours, get up and ger moving or I’ll make you walk the plank.” She wouldn’t, really, she’d probably just get annoyed, but she liked holding that threat over people’s heads.

Amethyst and Jasper both groaned, but did rise from their cots and begin stretching. Pleased, Lapis skipped over and lightly gave each a pat on the back. “See, I knew I could count on you. Thanks for being awesome. And I’m really sorry about the whole ‘putting your lives in danger to keep on schedule’ thing.” There, she even apologized. That was good enough for her.

“I’m not sorry for cutting you up,” Jasper grumbled in response, shooting her a tired glare. “First you drive us out into the territory of angry fish ladies that want to eat us, and then you don’t let us sleep in.” The massive woman sighed heavily before ruffling Lapis’ hair roughly enough to hurt a little bit, and the captain responded by lightly punching her side. “But you did kind of apologize, so I guess I can accept that and keep being your friend.”

“Who says we’re friends?” the captain grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting slightly. “We are coworkers who live together, that doesn’t mean we’re close enough to be considered  _ friends _ .” Of course, she did consider the older woman to be a pal of hers, but she wasn’t about to admit that after being criticized by two crew members in a row. Her annoyance only grew when she was hoisted up by Jasper and thrown over her shoulder, carried up the latter to the deck like a sack of potatoes - she was entirely mobile, She didn’t need to be carried.

“I dunno, Lazuli, maybe it’s the fact that I’m your first mate and me and Ame have been on your ship the longest out of anyone. You have a pretty selective crew.” Jasper turned her head slightly to stick her tongue out at Lapis, and said pirate wanted to punch her in the mouth for it. “If we weren’t friends, I bet you would’ve kicked me off by now. Or maybe you haven’t done that because I’m insanely good with my mouth and you’d miss getting eaten out?”

“You are the worst,” the captain responded with a groan, going limp against her friend’s shoulder and allowing herself to be carried the rest of the way to the wheel of the ship. She was then unceremoniously dropped on her feet before it; relieved to have a distraction, she immediately turned her attention to the vast sea ahead. Lapis took a deep breath of the salty air before glancing at her compass to ensure that they were still headed north and gently rubbing her hands against the weathered wood, taking great delight in the familiar texture underneath her fingertips.

“Maybe you shouldn’t lead Peridot on, clearly this ship is the love of your life,” the brute snorted out her comment, pulling herself up to the railing and sitting there. It took most of Lapis’ self control to not quickly move forward and shove her off - with her massive weight, she’d hit the water hard enough for it to sting for the next day or so. Maybe she’d even sink all the way to the bottom. Not that the captain really had the heart to send her first mate hurdling to possible death, but imagining it certainly put a small smirk on her face.

Lapis hummed slightly in response, keeping an eye on her compass and occasionally glancing up at the ocean. The weather was nice, the waves weren’t too high, and there was a gentle covering of clouds overhead that kept the sun’s rays from burning but didn’t look to mean rain. She appreciated that; everyone on the Crystalled Mirror had been through enough in the last twenty four hours without Pearl getting a sunburn and proceeding to whine about it for the next week or so. Hopefully today would bring more relaxing sailing than some of the rest of the trip had held.

“So, are we going to be stopping in the next town for supplies?” Jasper suddenly spoke up, and upon glancing at her first mate Lapis found that she was staring wistfully out into the sea. Huh. She didn’t usually get this tired of sailing for a while, but then again, usually they didn’t deal with a storm and a group of sirens within less than a week of each other. She supposed that she couldn’t blame her; the captain kind of wanted to land and get some peace and quiet for a while, too.

“Probably. I think the closest one on the way to Delmarva is Ocean Town. You okay with stopping there?”

“Hey, as long as we get off the water for a while I’m good.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis and Peridot have a discussion regarding their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cant believe this thing is halfway done already omg

“We’ll be setting down on land tomorrow afternoon. We’ll probably find an inn while there and stay in a few different rooms for about three days so we can go out and get supplies and so that repairs can be done on the ship. We’ll be back on the water shortly after the ship is done, assuming it’s not completed in the middle of the night, and then we’ll still be on route to getting you home. Is that okay with you?” Lapis’ explanation was spoken quickly, and it took Peridot a moment to even process most of the information thrown at her. She was almost a little confused for a few moments.

“Yes, that’s fine by me, Lazuli. But why did you say it so quickly? Do you think I’m going to get mad at you because your ship needs supplies? Because I assure you, I’m not and that’s absolutely ridiculous!” the princess scoffed, rising to her feet with her chest puffed out. “Honestly, I’m going to be out here for a while as is, what’s three extra days? Actually, I’m rather enjoying the company of you and your crew, and I’m almost dreading going back to the dull mechanisms of daily life.” She  _ was _ rather homesick and missed the routine that came with being a member of the royal family, but she felt like the adventure she had been through was good for her. Loosened her up a little, got her used to being out of the kingdom and dealing with different sorts of people. She wasn’t as sheltered as before, and that was a feeling that was both freeing and a little intimidating. “While piracy is not a career choice that I’m going to be making and sticking to anytime soon, I am enjoying being on the ship. And being around you. It’s like an extended vacation with a woman who I feel like I’ve met before but don’t entirely remember!”

Lapis let out a soft laugh at that, and Peridot’s chest swelled with pride at the fact that  _ she _ had made the pirate even so much as giggle! Of course, her chest was probably swelling with something else, but she mostly just shoved that aside to be dealt with later. She wasn’t going to be able to deny the feelings that she was growing for the captain much longer. In fact, she wanted to have an intelligent discussion about it sometime before they landed in the town they were stopping at. She could only pray that Lapis had an emotional maturity level more advanced than a peanut and would be willing to listen and work something out that both of them could manage.

_ Could _ romantic relationships even be approached with reason and intelligence? Peridot wasn’t entirely sure - mostly because she had never partaken in one before - but logic and reason was the main way she swung in life. She would give it a good old fashioned try if it was the last thing she did, and if something couldn’t be reasoned and worked out, then fine. She wouldn’t pursue Lapis Lazuli, as painful as the idea seemed to her. It was like her soul was binding itself to the older girl, urging her to never let go and hold her close and keep her near forever.

The princess didn’t like that her romantic attraction was so strong already; she was still certain that it was only a brief infatuation that would probably wear off the moment she got used to Lapis’ presence and was no longer in awe every time the pirate did something even vaguely interesting. She had never been allowed around those who condoned the love of the same gender despite being that kind of person herself before, after all, and the captain just happened to be the most attractive woman on board. That coupled with the fact that she had been rescued by the half siren and was therefore extremely grateful to her probably helped matters extensively. She was entirely new to the whole romantic attraction thing aside from just reading books - but no book could ever describe the pull she felt towards the pirate, even if they helped her to predict the skipped beat in her heart rate whenever Lapis smiled at her or laughed because of something she said.

She wondered if Lapis could relate to these feelings. Should she ask? Maybe she would when she initiated the conversation regarding the potential for their relationship. That would probably be a halfway decent way to bring something potentially awkward up, after all, and she didn’t really see the harm in asking a question to someone who probably had experience with romantic relationships and the attraction - both kinds - that went along with it. Peridot was nothing if not thirsty for knowledge and answers, after all, and even if she needed to stop partway through she wanted to  _ try. _

“Hey, Lapis, there’s actually something I wanted to discuss with you,” the princess spoke calmly, gently taking the captain’s wrist in one hand and tugging her gently towards the bed, watching the small amount of confusion on the older girl’s face as she pulled her to sit next to her on the soft blankets. Nerves settled in almost immediately; Peridot didn’t like being this scared to discuss something with someone, and she wanted it to stop more than a little bit. “I, uh, I like you a lot in more ways than as just a friend, as if that wasn’t obvious from previous conversations between us. I would love to initiate a romantic relationship with you, but I think we’re both aware it would be temporary.”

Lapis blinked slightly and tilted her head, a small frown pushing down the corners of her mouth that Peridot really, desperately wanted to kiss away until it was replaced by a smile that would probably suit her appearance much better. “Of course it would be temporary. I like you a lot too, but I’m not sure if it’s wise to have a romantic relationship considering I’m wanted in the country that you are heiress to. I mean, I’m all for it, but the last thing I want is to be imprisoned. I like my freedom.”

“Do you still think I’m going to tell my guards that we kissed and were involved with each other in more ways than just friends or allies? Because I’ve told you that I wouldn’t do that! I don’t share every little detail about my life with the people who are supposed to protect me. I know the laws are a little insane - that’s why I keep secrets from them. Lazuli, if we were to initiate a romantic relationship I promise you that nobody would ever find out aside from you, me, and maybe the crew.” She gently squeezed Lapis’ hands, giving her a small smile that she hoped was reassuring. “I really want to, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t, aside from you still being worried about being imprisoned for it.”

“It’s more than just that, Peridot, it’s also because I don’t want  _ you _ getting hurt,” the captain replied with a heavy sigh, and the princess was confused a moment until she spoke again. “I’m used to my relationships being temporary, platonic or sexual or romantic or otherwise. You, on the other hand, have only seen  _ permanent _ ones. I’m willing to bet your father was the first person your mother was ever in a relationship with, and that he was the only one until he died, too. I don’t know if you’d be able to let go as easily, and you might regret everything we do a few years down the line. Hell, I might not be able to let go easily - I get the feeling that being with you would be more than just a bragging right, you know? Because I feel this weird  _ pull _ towards you, like something  _ wants _ us to be together.”

“I thought I was the only one that felt that,” the royal murmured with a small amount of awe before straightening up with her arms over her chest. “Lapis, I can fully assure you that I can handle this. I am seventeen years old, very educated, and expected to inherit rule of my country! If I can’t handle a simple relationship like this - or a complicated one, I don’t know, we haven’t tried this - then I can’t lead my people. And I am eighty percent sure that I’m fully capable of leading my people.”

“What about the other twenty percent?” the pirate asked with a small smirk, and Peridot felt frustration build up in her veins. Couldn’t she just accept the royal’s determination and agree to start a relationship with her? Of course, there was always the possibility that she didn’t want to, and if that possibility was a real one then the princess felt like a real asshole and more suitable to be the court jester than the future queen. The pirate hadn’t directly said that she didn’t want to, so she had that going for her, right? She was only expressing concern.

“The other twenty percent is not relevant!” the royal responded indignantly, pouting slightly and letting go of the captain’s hand. “Lapis, look, all I’m trying to say is I don’t want my current class status to get in the way of  _ anything. _ I can still choose what I want to do with my time and my life, even if that would mean rebelling against my mother and the path set for me. If you don’t want to do this, fine, and I’m sorry for bothering you about it, but I really hope you heard me out and took what I had to say into consideration. Because I do like you a lot.”

The captain sighed heavily and almost looked tired when she finally gave the princess a small smile. “Okay, okay, we can try. But this is going to make it even more difficult to leave you behind when we drop you off in Delmarva,” she spoke with uncharacteristic softness, gently wrapping an arm around the princess’ middle and giving a gentle squeeze that made the royal blush. Wow, she was smitten, and it only became more obvious whenever she was physically close to the pirate - she wanted to hold her close and kiss her and take advantage of every last second they had together.

So she did. She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against Lapis’, taking great glee in the way the pirate immediately held her a little closer and leaned her back to deepen the kiss. Hoping that they wouldn’t get interrupted again, the princess slowly let her eyes close and smiled against her lover’s mouth, letting herself melt into the contact and relax. Fucking hell, she loved this, she loved being close to someone like this, she loved that it was  _ Lapis _ and she loved Lapis in general really.

Unfortunately, within what felt like moments of the contact being initiated, the door to the captain’s quarters slammed open. Peridot sighed heavily out of annoyance, breaking out of the kiss as Lapis quickly turned to face the person who had been so rude she couldn’t even knock - Jasper, apparently, and annoyance sparked even further in Peridot now that she knew it was the brute who had walked in on them. She had noticed some jealous behaviors from the large woman, as if she wanted Lapis all to herself, and that bothered the princess immensely.

“Sorry for interrupting whatever the hell is going on in here, but we have a problem, Lap. The wind threw us off a little and we’re no longer facing dead north - leaning more towards the west, actually. We need you to get us back on course or we won’t be stopping or getting back to Delmarva anytime soon,” Jasper spoke gruffly, gesturing towards the deck outside. Lapis groaned and sighed heavily before getting up off the bed, giving Peridot’s hand an apologetic squeeze and her first mate an annoyed glare.

“And why can’t you just fix it yourself?”

“Because you’re the fucking captain and I think the ship’s course is more important than making out with the princess you rescued from some sorry excuses for pirates.”

The captain rolled her eyes and gestured for the huge woman to leave the room - as soon as she did, she turned quickly back to the princess and gave her a little peck on the cheek that made her blush even harder. “Sorry, Peri, but I need to take care of this. I’ll be back in a little while and we can pick up where we left off, alright?”

Peridot nodded, brushing her fingers against her cheek as she watched Lapis leave the room. She wished that she hadn’t needed to go so soon, but she felt accomplished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can never figure out how to end chapters tbh


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis gets punched in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert clever comment here*

“Welcome back to the land, Princess,” Lapis spoke in a falsely professional tone and faked accent, extending her hand to help Peridot down from the last step of the ship. She almost laughed at how startled the princess seemed to have solid ground beneath her feet that didn’t rock with every wave; and then there was relief on her face that was altogether too adorable to be legal. “Aw, did you get a little tired of being on my big ship?” she asked in a jokingly condescending tone, laughing when she was shoved slightly. Some men stared as they passed by, and the pirate wanted to punch them for even so much as glancing in her direction.

“No! Well, not of the company. The ship, maybe a little,” the princess responded, and Lapis raised an eyebrow jokingly as if insulted, taking great glee in the way that she waved her arms as if to dispel any assumption that she was insulting the Crystalled Mirror. “Not that it’s not a very nice ship! I’m just very relieved to get back on solid ground. I wasn’t raised on a boat by a bunch of heathens, Lazuli, I kind of need to touch dry land every once in a while.”

“Jesus, you sound just like Pearl the first few months she was on board,” Lapis spoke in an amused tone, gently patting Peridot on the back, though she immediately withdrew her hand when the younger girl tensed. “Okay, we’re going to give you an easy task. Go with Pearl and Sapphire and find an inn where we can find three rooms we can rent while the ship is being repaired. Amethyst and Ruby are going to track down somebody who can fix the damage, and Jasper and I will go out and shop for supplies.” The usual routine for their first day on land, but with more of a job for Ruby and Amethyst and without the usual rooming arrangements. She would have to put Jasper in with Amethyst and Pearl.

That was bound to be an interesting time to hear about later.

“Are you sure I can’t just go with you?” the princess asked and grabbed onto the pirate’s arm, leaning on her shoulder with a small pout. Lapis sighed heavily; she was adorable, and it was tempting, but she kind of wanted to get drunk since evening was approaching rapidly and she was planning on sobering up at least a little bit afterwards before going to the inn and approaching her lover.

“I’m sure,” she responded, leaning forward to give the royal a little kiss on the nose and ignoring the heavy sigh and eyeroll that she sensed coming from Pearl. “We can spend some time together at the inn tonight, okay? I’ll catch up in a few hours when I’ve gotten enough food and stuff. And it’s not like I’m leaving you all alone in the city to fend for yourself; Pearl and Sapph can both kick some serious ass and we’ve been to this town before.”

Peridot sighed heavily, but nodded in agreement and trailed after the two women when they started walking away. Lapis smiled and waved when she looked back, almost feeling a little sad that she was letting the princess leave; their time together was limited, and she almost wished that she had said yes to allowing her to join the supply shopping. Before she could dwell on it for too long, though, a strong hand gently punched her upper back, and she turned quickly and defensively; Amethyst and Ruby had already walked off to do their job, so she and Jasper were the only ones standing in front of the ship.

“Jesus, Lapis, it isn’t like you’re sending her off to war or something, you’ll see her in a few hours,” Jasper grumbled in a fairly gruff tone, and the pirate couldn’t help but to roll her eyes slightly. Her first mate had been acting weird lately, almost like she was jealous, and the captain couldn’t entirely figure out why. They were friends who sometimes fucked when one or both of them needed it. It wasn’t like there was any romantic side to their relationship, and if it was, then it was one-sided; Lapis couldn’t imagine actually being in a dedicated lovey dovey relationship with the much larger woman, for one reason or another she couldn’t fully figure out. A flash of her with orange skin sometimes popped into mind, but she usually shrugged it off and concentrated on something else.

“No, but we don’t exactly have a whole lot of time before I need to drop her off back in Beach City and wave her out of my life forever, Jasper,” Lapis responded with a heavy sigh, shoving her hands in the pockets of her pants. She would have to change into a dress soon in order to keep up with appearances; Jasper could pass for a man with a little bit of binding and a whole lot of tying her hair back, but Lapis was petite and delicate looking and hated every minute of it.

“A fair point,” the brute responded, but her tone suggested that the point was not fair at all. “But you need to stop acting like a lovesick puppy over her, honestly. She’s not going to be a part of your life very long. Like you said, she needs to be dropped back off in Delmarva sooner rather than later, and your intent to get her there as soon as possible is the main reason we needed to stop.”

“Oh my god, shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” Lapis groaned, aiming a punch for her friend’s stomach that barely made her flinch. “Ugh, do you want to get dressed and go down to a pub or something? I feel like I need a drink. Desperately.” Maybe she  _ was _ an alcoholic piece of shit, but hell if she wasn’t about to go and drink all of her problems away.

“I don’t know. I feel like we should get some shopping first. But yes, we should get dressed before we do anything,” Jasper replied, turning on her heel and walking back onto the ship. Lapis groaned and mumbled something about stupid captain and first mate responsibilities before following, dragging her feet against the wood a little, more for dramatic effect than anything else. She was looking forward to seeing the surprise on townspeople’s faces when they saw a pretty little lady in a peasant’s dress carrying boxes of heavy, heavy food to an elegant looking ship that belonged to her.

* * *

 

Two hours and a hell of a lot of money later, the two pirates had settled themselves at the bar in a pub and were getting completely and utterly wasted. Or, well, Jasper was. Lapis was only on her second shot, and the bigger woman was already completely hammered on six beers and three shots of whiskey. She figured it was probably a good thing that she was pacing herself more than her meathead of a friend was, because  _ somebody _ was going to have to drag her back to the inn, and the captain didn’t think that she could manage that with her own blood alcohol level off the roof.

There were two options that she would have to deal with when it came to Jasper on a fuckton of alcohol; sad drunk or angry, violent drunk. Maybe even a combination of both. It was with more than a little caution that the pirate carefully removed the shot glass and beer glass from her first mate’s hands, sliding them back across the counter to the tender. “Okay, Jasp, I think you’ve had enough,” she spoke calmly, gently trying to tug the much larger woman away from the counter. “We better get going before you get into another bar fight or something. I’m not wasting money on your medical treatment.”

Jasper scoffed and shoved her back with more force than was necessary, almost making Lapis fall off of her barstool and land flat on her ass. “I decide when I’ve had enough, and I’m not going to get into another fight. It’s been years since I punched anybody but you and the rest of the crew, Lazuli,” she replied gruffly before gesturing for another drink - the bartender shrugged and passed her another shot of whiskey, and Lapis rolled her eyes. “I’d probably get arrested before I got hospitalized anyway.”

“Yeah, and I can’t afford to get you out of prison if you keep drinking all our funds away, Fiera,” the captain grumbled, plucking the whiskey from her hand and taking the shot before her friend could. Lapis almost coughed at the burning sensation it brought with it - she wasn’t a fan of whiskey, usually preferring rum or cider, but if it would get Jasper to cut it out then she could deal with it. “Isn’t there something else that you’d like to drink? Like water or something? You have to share a room with Pearl and Amethyst, and they’re going to be pissed if you walk in drunk off your ass.”

“Yeah, well, you’re the one who decided I’m not rooming with you so you can hang out with that prissy little princess, so you get to face the consequences of that one,” Jasper grumbled, and Lapis had to clench her fists to avoid punching her or something. She herself wasn’t drunk, just a little bit tipsy, but that was enough to make her easily annoyed - she didn’t understand what the big deal was! So she was in a relationship with Peridot. What caused the jealousy and shit?

“Stop being so weird about it,” the captain responded, and it took almost all of her self control to not demand more alcohol and drink away her confusion. “So I actually like someone I’m sleeping with now. It’s not like that makes you any less my friend, or something like that, it just means we won’t be fucking for a while.” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the bartender was paying attention to their conversation. Glaring slightly, the pirate pulled her knife from her pocket and held it up for the man to see - he seemed to get the hint and went back to cleaning out the glass in her hand, and she turned back to Jasper, her expression hopefully conveying that she wanted answers.

“I’m jealous, alright?” the brute responded with a massive shrug, getting to her feet as if not caring that she was drawing attention to herself - and, really, she was drunk enough that it probably didn’t even cross her mind. “I have you for years, and suddenly this little bitch waltzes into your life and sweeps you off your feet. Jesus, she’s not even attractive and she’s got you wrapped around her prissy little finger!” Jasper ranted, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her with a heat that made Lapis squirm. “I am in love with you, Lazuli, and it’s like it doesn’t matter.”

“Because I never knew you felt that way! But Jesus Christ, Jasp, I don’t feel the same way about you. You’re my friend and you’re attractive, but I’m not interested in having an actual, committed romantic relationship with you.” She almost added a ‘get over it,’ but she figured that rejecting Jasper’s feelings would get her pissed enough and Lapis would really have liked to live to see another day.

Unfortunately, keeping a filter on her mouth didn’t seem to do her any favors, because within a few seconds a very large fist connected with her nose. Lapis was startled, and because of that she fell off the stool and landed sprawled on her back, one hand moving up to carefully feel her nose and ensure that the cartilage wasn’t broken - and as soon as she had done that, she pushed herself to her feet, left a handful of gold on the counter, and turned to leave. Things would probably get violent if she stuck around for very long, and honestly, she didn’t want to get arrested for getting into a fight with her friend.

“Lapis, wait, I’m sorry,” Jasper started, reaching out and grabbing tightly onto the captain’s wrist. She responded by yanking her arm away, crossing her arms over her chest - she did, however, stop walking, and stood still to see what the brute had to say. She wasn’t about to take anything to heart, because her first mate was clearly drunk off her ass, the punch included - but she wasn’t about to listen to and accept any excuses, either. “I just want you all to myself and I’m upset that I can’t own you. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to punch you.”

Okay, well, now she was pissed. The petite woman turned slowly to face the brute, her arms drifting from over her chest so that fists could clench at her sides. “There are better ways to deal with rejection than with violence, and I was going to forgive you. But  _ nobody _ owns me. Not Peridot, not my ship or Pearl or anyybody. I am my own fucking person, and my relationship status doesn’t change that. I hope you can find your own way back to the inn, because I’m leaving.”

And with that, she stormed out of the pub and onto the streets, walking down towards the usual inn with a briskness that wasn’t always common for her. She wasn’t upset or afraid; she was just seriously angry and probably would result to violence if she saw Jasper anytime before the sun came up. Her nose was starting to become sore, and it crossed her mind that the brute was lucky it hadn’t been broken - her hand closed around the hilt of her knife, and she was barely able to resist the overwhelming urge to stab into one of the wooden or brick buildings she passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert another clever comment here*


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis and Pearl have an argument, which Peridot overhears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO DAMN i'm so sorry  
> i haven't touched this fic in three months and i kinda skimmed over recent chapters so i could try and write this one decently so if there are any continuity errors forgive me

Peridot had to hand it to Pearl and Sapphire, they seemed to know how to get the lowest rates on a few rooms with a little bit of flirting with the owner. She was impressed by their ability to manipulate, but was even more impressed by the quality of the room she was escorted to - it was rather spacy, with a desk and a big bed, tasteful curtains and very nice and expensive looking curtains hanging in the windows. Apparently the budget was foregone when it came to where the captain stayed, but honestly, the princess couldn’t find it in her to care. She didn’t even realize how tired she was until she had walked over to the soft bed and laid down, drifting into sleep the moment her head hit the fluffy pillow.

She wasn’t sure how long it took for an argument just outside to wake her up, but it took her several moments to recognize the voices as Lapis’ and Pearl’s. Peridot was silent as she rolled out of bed and wandered to the door, pressing her ear against the wood and eavesdropping as best she could; the walls were thin, so she probably could have overheard even without, but she liked to be safe rather than unaware of what was going on and, therefore, sorry.

“You let her get drunk and then left her behind at the pub, Lazuli,” Pearl was saying in a voice made high by stress and maybe surprise regarding how careless Lapis was being. “I don’t care how badly Jasper was acting, you can’t just leave the strongest member of our crew behind in a town we don’t usually visit.  _ Especially _ drunk! She could get lost, or start a fight and get into legal trouble, or get jumped on the off chance there’s some blacksmith or something bigger than her in town, or decide that it would be a good idea to walk off the edge of the dock and drown--”

“Oh, my god, Pearl. Jasper is a big girl and a veteran, she can handle herself, she’s been drunk on her own before, and I am  **not** going to deal with somebody that just declared that she was in love with me and proceeded to punch me in the face. If you’re so concerned about her wellbeing, you can go find her yourself, okay? I have a headache and I kind of want to take a nap.” Lapis sighed heavily, and Peridot kind of wished that she could see her body language instead of just trying to draw conclusions from her tone and words. She sounded exasperated and annoyed, with a sort of dark, threatening undertone that was just a  _ little bit _ frightening.

Pearl said something quieter and calmer in response, and the rest of their conversation was carried out in much the same tone. Peridot gave up trying to pay attention after a few moments, choosing instead to lay back down on the bed. Lapis would come in the room eventually, and she would tell her whatever she needed to know - and she had no problem with hassling for anything she wanted to know.

They took long enough to finish talking that the princess was nearly asleep again by the time the door to the room opened and the captain entered. She pulled herself up on her elbows and watched with an eyebrow raised, but if Lapis was particularly upset she was hiding it underneath a blank expression and calm demeanor. Peridot frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get any words out, Lapis had flopped onto the bed and wrapped her arms around her - for the moment, she opted for just hugging the other close and remaining in silence for a bit longer.

“What was that all about?” she finally asked after a little while, keeping her voice light and pretending that she hadn’t heard anything besides muffled arguing. Lapis probably wouldn’t react very well to learning that Peridot had been eavesdropping, so it was best to just keep that tucked away for now lest the ominous tone from before now be directed at her. She wasn’t afraid of the pirate anymore, really, she just… didn’t feel like pissing off her lover and escort.

“Jasper was being a horrible person, and I got mad at her and left her behind. Pearl is upset because she was really drunk and we don’t usually stop in this town, so she might not be able to find her way to the hotel.” Lapis sniffed slightly when she was done talking, releasing Peridot and fully lowering herself onto the bed. Her face was buried in a pillow within moments, and though the princess was a little annoyed - it was  _ rude _ to hide one’s face while in the company of others - she managed to shovel her pickiness underneath sympathy for the pirate.

So instead of scolding her about it, she just laid down as well, but with her back against the cushiony mattress and pillow instead of her stomach. Internally, she agreed with Pearl, but she opted against saying anything because Lapis was probably a little tipsy - sobered up by anger, probably - and she was a bit of an emotional whirlwind to begin with. Pale fingers intertwined with the tan of her lover’s, and she blushed as the pirate pressed a little closer against her side. For a moment, there was peace in the quiet room, the only sounds being the two’s breathing and muffled conversation between Ruby and Sapphire to their left.

Peridot’s mind was brought, at first, to the differences between herself and her lover, mainly because of their hands. Lapis’ were rough and calloused from spending her entire life at sea, working on a ship and even sailing alone for a time before she met Jasper and Amethyst; on the other hand, Peridot’s were soft due to spending most of her life locked away in a castle, never needing to do any sort of menial labor. The last several days were filled with more excitement than she’d ever lived through; part of her was convinced that this sort of thing was just what Lapis  _ did _ for a living. 

But at the same time, they were very… alike. In thought process, sense of humor, and some intentions and morals, especially as Peridot slowly grew up past the rigid structure of her daily life before she found herself more exposed to a wider world than just her mother’s kingdom. She wasn’t sure if that just came from influence or from who she’d been her entire life, albeit partially suppressed with only her intelligence and confident air allowed to leak past.

She was… grateful, for that. In fact, she almost didn’t want to go home - staying on the open ocean with Lapis and her crew was sounding more and more attractive every day.

She was only broken out of her thoughts by soft lips pressed against her cheek, and then against her nose, and finally her lips. Peridot was startled and flustered, and admittedly it took her a moment to recognize that Lapis had moved on from just laying around in favor of showing affection. As soon as she got over it, though - which didn’t take very long - she immediately and eagerly returned the kiss.

The only reason it was ended was because both of them needed to breathe, and even then Peridot rather stubbornly wrapped her arms around Lapis in an attempt to keep her in place. The girl in question didn’t seem to have any objections to that, holding the princess close in return and resting her head against her shoulder. This quiet intimacy was something that Peridot still wasn’t used to, and wasn’t sure she ever would be; but it was…  _ good. _ One of the most  _ good _ things she’d ever experienced.

There was no hurry to break the silence, not really, but Peridot felt like she ought to anyway - she’d never responded to the explanation, after all, and there  _ was _ some concern in her mind for Jasper; she did agree with Lapis on the matter that she could handle herself, but she felt a little guilty considering she was the indirect reason the two pirates had gotten into an argument in the first place. “Somebody’s going to go find her, right?” she inquired in a quiet voice, not fully realizing that she was a bit afraid to voice the question until it was out.

Luckily, Lapis didn’t seem to be too annoyed, the first response she gave being a small snort. “I think Pearl and Amethyst were going to go out, but I’m not too worried about whether or not they find her. She’s smarter than she lets on, and she  _ should _ know Pearl and Sapphire well enough to figure out which inn they picked.” She then shrugged and tightened her grip around Peridot, who squirmed slightly to get into a more comfortable position but didn’t object - how could she complain when someone who she was growing to adore wanted her close?

“What if she  _ doesn’t, _ though?”

“She will. She’ll probably end up hanging around the ship if she can’t figure it out within a few hours, and we’ll  _ definitely _ see her there.”

Peridot frowned slightly, but was rather easily pacified by the answer when another sweet kiss was pressed against her lips. Her cheeks heated up and she carefully threaded her fingers through the pirate’s hair, unable to help the soft gasp that left her when Lapis moved to straddle her hips and pulled her up slightly, head tilted to deepen the kiss. Shakily, she managed to rest her hands against the pirate’s sides, melting into the affection and only forcing herself away because her lungs were starting to burn for want of oxygen. 

She felt as though her body temperature had just ticked up several degrees, and she was sure that she looked a little ridiculous with her disheveled hair and cherry red face. Lapis let out a graceless snort and giggle at the sight of her, and if it was possible Peridot’s blush turned an even deeper red color - she was about to speak up in defiance, but she was interrupted when the older girl pressed a light kiss against her lips.

“You’re cute,” Lapis commented simply, gently stroking her cheek. Peridot managed to make a small, indignant noise, but the pirate only seemed more amused, so she gave up easily and settled for wrapping her arms around Lapis’ neck and tugging her into another embrace instead. She accepted that rather easily and became a warm weight atop the princess, her warm breath brushing against the side of her neck in a way that tickled and made her squirm just a bit. “You’re cute and smart and good to be around and I l-I’m really enjoying the time we’re spending together.”

Peridot twisted her head slightly in order to look at Lapis at the small falter in her speech, a small frown appearing across her lips. She wasn’t necessarily upset about the pirate almost declaring her love - actually, she was a little annoyed by the ‘almost’ part, but that was beside the point - but she  _ was _ a little frightened. Neither of them were supposed to fall in love. They were just supposed to be attracted to each other. They wouldn’t be able to stay together - it wouldn’t be able to end in anything but heartbreak.

Well, she was already long gone. She was in love with Lapis, and had long accepted that much, but… the pirate returning the sentiment wasn’t exactly encouraging.

She might have responded with an “I love you,” but she held her tongue and settled for just pushing herself up enough to press her lips against Lapis’ in yet another kiss that only lasted a moment. “I’m enjoying the time we have together too,” Peridot responded in a voice so soft it surprised even her, before adopting a slightly stronger grip around the pirate and initiating a second, deeper kiss, pleasantly surprised when her lover not only returned it but fully relaxed into the contact.

Later. She would worry about all of this later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact it took me like 3 takes to try and finish the last part of this chapter because that level of fluff was too much for even me, the writer  
> (smut in the next chapter)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> smut smut smut donut read if u are a child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE NOT WRITTEN SMUT IN MONTHS so i'm really sorry if this isn't really great whoops

Lapis had, initially, intended to break off their makeout session long before it reached the point where Peridot's hand was buried in her hair and she began pressing kisses against the pale skin of her jaw and neck, but, well, here they were. She had also not intended for it to go far enough for Peridot to start clumsily undoing the buttons of her shirt to try and access and touch more of her skin, but hey, absolutely none of their trip had gone quite as intended. Everything was moving quickly, not just this. So if it weren't for one little nagging fear in the back of her mind, the pirate might have gone along easily with what was happening – she didn't have any true objections, considering she was falling head over heels for this uppity little princess and her body was _certainly_ starting to thrum with anticipation.

Her reservations mostly had to do with... legal issues.

They were only a couple years apart in age, sure, and even if that wasn't so they were both above the legal age for marrying and copulating. It was more of a _class_ issue. If even _kissing_ Peridot was illegal due to their respective statuses as criminal and princess, then it would definitely be a problem if they were to have sex.

So she pulled away, not enough to completely break their contact. Peridot didn't take that too well, her arms automatically wrapping around Lapis' neck to try and bring her close again. “This is against the law,” the pirate managed to hiss despite most of her instinct telling her to get right back to it. “Peridot, are you _absolutely sure_ that you want this? Because if you have _any_ doubts, any _at all,_ then we need to stop immediately. I'm serious.”

The annoyed groan from underneath her was encouraging, as was the roll of Peridot's eyes. “Honestly, Lapis, I would have pushed you away by now if I didn't. I don't care about the law anymore – the law is stupid and outdated, and I don't want to be controlled by tradition. I really like you, and I hope that you really like me, and I think that's the basis I want my first time to be in instead of some asshole that my mother decides I should marry for political reasons.” The blonde then glanced up at her with a slightly concerned glare. “Um, _you're_ okay with this too, right?”

Lapis blinked, not having expected that, but nodded and buried her face back into her lover's throat. Before responding, she pressed a kiss against her neck and gave a soft nip of her teeth, taking great delight when Peridot gasped sharply under her and her hands found their way back tangled in her hair. “Of course I am, dork. I just wanted to make sure you don't have any problems with this. Try and minimize any regrets you might have later on in your life.” She placed her hands against Peridot's hips before moving back to look her in the eyes. “And if _you_ have no problem with going forward, then I guess I certainly don't either.”

Peridot seemed to be about to say something, but it was cut off by Lapis pressing their lips together once again, grip on her lover's hips tightening slightly. The younger girl squeaked softly, but seemed to melt back into the bedding with a soft and dreamy sigh pushed out against her lips. The captain didn't even try to hold back the small smile that appeared on her own mouth; the princess was just too precious, too lovely, and quite honestly too attractive.

She was barely even aware that Peridot had continued unbuttoning her shirt until she felt a chilly breeze against her now bare chest. Lapis reached for the borrowed shirt that her lover wore and began to do the same, but before she could even undo three fine little buttons her lover's hand reached up and grabbed onto her wrist, effectively stopping everything she'd just been doing with her hands moments earlier – more for fear of accidentally hurting the princess or causing a boundary than because the younger girl's strength outweighed her own.

Lapis' mouth opened and she was about to inquire a soft 'are you okay,' but before she could Peridot suddenly kissed her again, an act of dominance that honestly took Lapis off guard and startled her slightly. She allowed herself to be pushed back into a laying position on the bed, in just a little bit of shock as she watched her lover work quickly to pull her pants down – not that she really had any problem with any of this, really. She was mostly just surprised... and she probably would let Peridot keep this amount of control over the situation as long as she wanted to fill the role.

This was the princess' first time, after all. It needed to be as enjoyable as possible for her.

“Don't you want to go first?” Lapis asked, trying to keep the small amount of amusement out of her voice as she shifted onto her elbows in order to look at Peridot a little better. The younger girl was already pantless to begin with, and as she moved to straddle Lapis' hips as soon as her own state matched the pirate could already feel a warmth radiating from between her legs. (She hadn't been expecting it to be this easy to turn the princess on; she was assuming it was her lack of experience).

Peridot seemed to seriously consider that for a moment, glancing at Lapis' face for a second. However, it didn't take long for her expression to go back to being determined and for her to press a kiss between the pirate's breasts, making her gasp slightly. “If I have my round first, I won't be able to help you out after. And I wanna be as aroused and desperate as possible. And I would really like to be in charge,” a slight pause, “if that's okay with you.”

The captain snorted slightly and reached up in order to finish unbuttoning Peridot's shirt, and being oversized it slipped off her body pretty easily. “I'm more than okay with that,” Lapis responded in what she hoped was a reassuring tone, giving her lover a gentle smile. “But don't push yourself, okay? If it becomes too much and you want to stop or let me take over, don't be scared to speak up. We're going to do anything you want, and I'm not going to judge you or ask any questions if you change your mind on anything. I promise.”

The princess rolled her eyes, but her cheeks had flushed a faint pink color. “Yeah, okay. I'll tell you, I promise,” Peridot spoke in a slightly disgruntled but mostly flustered tone, leaning forward again in order to press her lips against Lapis'. The pirate gasped softly at the sensation of her lover's heated skin against her own, and allowed her hands to settle on her sides, adopting a slightly stronger grip there. It was taking most of her self control to just let the princess be in charge and take everything at her own pace, but all she did to voice her longing for things to move forward was let out a small groan.

When pale hands reached down for her underwear, Lapis eagerly allowed the fabric to be loosened from her hips, even wriggled slightly to make it easier. She opened her eyes as soon as Peridot pulled away from her lips, and as soon as their gaze met she was made aware of the nervousness that had made itself clear as day on the princess' face. “You okay?” she asked cautiously, shifting in order to rest on her elbows and watching her lover carefully.

“Yeah,” Peridot respective with a nod, the flush on her face becoming even deeper. “I'm just not very experienced in all this... which, um, you already knew. I'm just nervous that I'll do something wrong, so... if I do, please let me know? I've read a lot of romance novels, so I _think_ I know what I'm doing, but they were all about heterosexual sex, so I'm not sure that many of the same things apply since we don't have the right parts and...” She stopped herself a little while into her rant and shook her head, and Lapis almost wanted to laugh and kiss the small frown off of her lips. “Point being, I'm really inexperienced and brand new at this, so just... keep that in mind.”

“I'm sure you'll do great,” Lapis responded, giving her lover a small, reassuring smile. She was about to say something again, but before she could, she was cut off by sudden contact with her clit in the form of Peridot lightly massaging one finger against it. Against her will, her body twitched and she let out a moan; she didn't mind the suddenness - if anything it made the sensation all the more pleasant.

The princess continued to massage her clit for a moment, lightly, giving just enough pressure to make it pleasurable but not painful. Lapis was reduced to a moaning mess on the bed within moments, legs twitching; this wasn't exactly the best sex she'd ever had thus far, but it had been a while since the last time she'd gotten off, and doing it with somebody she ~~loved~~ cared deeply about really just made it feel even better. The pirate didn't feel the need to hold back a loud moan when Peridot slipped two fingers into her waiting heat – she was wet enough that it wasn't a stretch in the least.

Lapis was vaguely aware of a buildup of heat in her gut, and she became impatient as her lover probed around inside of her and gave her fingers the occasional thrust. She was inching towards a climax, but it was slow, slow, too slow, she needed more, she needed it soon. Just as she uttered a quiet and desperate “more,” however, Peridot crooked her fingers in just the right way to press up against a rough sensitive spot inside of her, and she was only vaguely aware of her back arching slightly.

“Am I doing good?” Peridot asked, faltering only slightly in her pace and making Lapis groan slightly from frustration.

“Yes – yes, just keep going – go harder – please...”

The princess' confidence seemed to be renewed by her begging, which was enough to make her cheeks heat up even further, but she was unable to concentrate on being flustered when the younger girl followed her request and began pressing her fingers even harder, giving harsh thrusts and curling and uncurling against her g-spot. It was too much, and the heat in her abdomen was getting to be overwhelming – maybe Peridot wasn't very skilled yet, but damn if this didn't feel good, and that was pretty much the only thing that mattered to her.

Lapis climaxed with a long and high pitched whine, toes curling and her grip on Peridot's sides tightening to the point she was afraid she was drawing blood. Her orgasm was somewhat short lived and not as intense as she would have liked, but it was still an immense relief and the best she had felt for most of the day. She came down from her high rather quickly, and as soon as her breath had returned to a somewhat normal pace, she flipped their position so that she was on top of her lover.

“That was amazing,” she commented, giving Peridot a brief but sweet kiss on the lips before pressing more kisses down her jaw and throat. She could feel the princess shiver under her, and that was enough to make her hesitate just a bit, resting her cheek against her lover's sternum and glancing up to meet her gaze. “Do you want me to return the favor? It's not too late to say no.”

“God, yes,” the princess responded, cheeks flushing even deeper. She seemed extremely flustered by the question and their current situation, and Lapis couldn't blame her, but she wasn't about to deny that it was extremely adorable. Still, satisfied with the confirmation, she pressed more kisses down her lover's body and reveled in the pleased shivers that passed through Peridot's small form.

Eventually, when Peridot started pleading softly, Lapis pushed herself back so that she was laying down again and gestured for her small lover to come forward. “Sit on my face,” she spoke in a tone that was meant to sound demanding but came off as slightly unsure, and she was a little embarrassed by her own insecurity, but that wore off quickly as the princess eagerly did so, yanking her panties off as she did.

It took a moment for her to get properly aligned with Lapis' face, but as soon as she did the pirate took gentle hold of the backs of her lover's thighs and pulled her down as gently as possible. She peppered small kisses against the soft skin near her womanhood, licking up what arousal had already gathered there and listening to the small groans that Peridot let out.

When her lips finally made contact with her lover's slit, the younger girl tensed; Lapis froze and was ready to stop, but that notion disappeared when small fingers gripped onto her dark hair and a soft “please” came from Peridot. She continued carefully, gently parting her folds and teasingly brushing against her clit for a little while and simply listening to the reactions elicited from the blonde – moans and pleads, mostly – and trying not to be too turned on by the harsh grip on her hair.

Lapis was gentle and careful in pressing her tongue into Peridot's heat, dark blue eyes opening in order to watch the facial expressions that passed over her lover's face. Peridot's face twisted every so often with moans, and her mouth had fallen open into a little 'o' – the only thing that the pirate was really certain of at the moment was that her lover was beautiful, the faint candlelight from the nightstand complimenting her pale skin. Lapis' heart gave a faint flutter, and she was... inspired to begin moving faster, thrusting her tongue in and out of the princess' heat and flicking it against her clit until she was squealing and moaning and begging.

All it took to drive Peridot over the edge was a light suck to her clit, and Lapis was only vaguely aware of the trouble she was having in the breathing department as she milked her small lover through her orgasm. She was completely entranced by the twitches and moans of her name coming from the girl on top of her, and she couldn't have moved her gaze away if she wanted to – Peridot was beautiful and attractive and hers, all hers until she finally had to return her to the kingdom that she would one day rule and damn if she wasn't going to be the most gorgeous queen Delmarva ever saw.

When Peridot finally finished her orgasm and lifted off of Lapis' face, the pirate found herself gasping for breath, not minding the mixture of saliva and arousal that was now covering the lower half of her face. The princess flopped back onto the mattress, and the pirate was quick to join her as her breathing rate returned to a healthy and normal speed; as carefully as she could, she wrapped her arms around her bare lover and pulling the covers over the both of them. Peridot nudged her face against Lapis' throat, and the older of the two could feel her heart melting.

“That was good.”

“Yeah. It was.”

Peridot seemed like she was about to say something else, but instead she just yawned and pulled Lapis a little closer. The captain allowed it, melting into the warmth of their embrace and the heavy covers atop them.

The feeling in her chest was warm and happy and dangerous. For the moment, she chose not to acknowledge it.

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis thinks about her feelings and has a brief talk with Jasper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this takes place like right after the last chapter and i mostly got this out quickly so that it wouldn't be stuck on some smut for a while,, i'm not too proud of this so if it's bad i sincerely apologize

Peridot was asleep, her arms still wrapped loosely around Lapis’ middle and her face nudged into the side of her neck. Lapis herself didn’t especially mind this position; she was pretty touched that she was still being held even well into the night, actually.

Under the cover of darkness with only the light of the full moon offering some visibility in the room, the quiet intimacy left over was invisible. That made the pirate feel more safe, and it was something… new. She wasn’t used to feeling this comfortable being naked and curled up well after the initial acts partaken in were finished, and she certainly wasn’t used to feeling this much fondness for the person snuggled up next to her.

It was… nice. She didn’t have anything to complain about for the moment. Not really.

Except for maybe the small amount of dread still in the bottom of her chest. She was afraid of the hurt that would settle in when the younger girl had to leave. She was afraid that she might not be able to let go. She was dreading when these warm feelings of affection and fondness would come back to bite her in the most brutal way humanly possible.

These fuzzy emotions weren’t good. They only led to pain and tears. She  _ knew _ that. But she couldn’t shake them off, and she couldn’t force herself to break away from Peridot. Just watching her sleepy face was enough to make Lapis’ heart lurch in her chest almost painfully - she couldn’t imagine breaking off whatever they had going and leaving her princess brokenhearted. It seemed too cruel, to both parties involved, and she didn’t think she would ever be able to live with herself… even if it meant chasing away a little bit of extra pain that was sure to come later.

Lapis sighed heavily and rolled over to lay on her back, staring up at a mysterious stain on the ceiling left by some previous patron or another. She didn’t want to fall in love so thoroughly with the princess, but every moment they were together that got more difficult. Every time she glanced over at her lover’s messy brown hair and peaceful face, the last edges of afterglow still ebbing away from her skin, it got harder. She was in too deep, and even now it hurt to remind herself that she would have to be separated from Peridot soon. Spikes of pain ran through her heart whenever she thought on it.

She probably needed to wash her face. Or take a bath in general. Her thighs and chin felt sticky as all hell, and she could only imagine that her lover could say the same of her hands and the area between her legs. For the moment, she was thinking that it could wait until the morning. She didn’t want to separate from Peridot - she never, ever wanted to separate from Peridot, but for the moment she needed to milk every moment she could spend with the princess to the last drop.

Which was the chief reason she ignored the first series of small knocks to come to the door. Who the hell walked up to an occupied inn room at this hour with the intent to talk to whoever was inside, anyway? Lapis didn’t feel guilty about ignoring it and just curling up closer to Peridot, deciding to try and find the sleep that she probably needed if she wanted to get through the next day. 

When the door was pounded on a second time, though, she sighed heavily and rolled out of bed. There was no sense in getting her princess woken up just because she was stubborn.

Lapis grabbed the uppermost blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders so that it hung off her lean body like a cloak. She spared herself only a glance into the mirror in the corner - her hair was  _ very _ disheveled, but what was staining her mouth and chin didn’t seem to be all that obvious. Not that she would care if it was as clear as day, anyway. She just wanted to get the brief interaction expected of her over with so that she could go to bed.

She opened the wooden door and blinked into the bright candlelight that greeted her with a soft, annoyed groan. Her eyes didn’t even need to adjust to let her recognize the large shape in front of her, and her frown deepened, arms crossing across her chest as she glared up at Jasper. At the moment she was a little too tired to be truly angry, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still as annoyed as she could be. “It’s one in the morning and you almost woke Peridot up. I hope you have a good reason for this.”

“I just wanted to apologize for hitting on you and punching you,” the brute responded, and as Lapis’ eyes got used to the change in lighting she became somewhat aware of the expression on her friend’s face. She seemed more tired and sad than anything else, so her hostility was quick to wear away - not that she let it show on her face, though. She wanted Jasper to know that she was still pretty mad. “That was uncalled for, and I guess I’m happy as long as you’re happy. I understand if you don’t want to be around me right now, but seriously, I’m sorry.”

The captain hesitated, looking her first mate up and down with a bit of a squint. She was only about half awake, so it was a little harder to cling to what little grudge she had - and she supposed that if she was going to lose Peridot pretty soon, she might as well keep Jasper around. “I forgive you, I guess, but I’m still mad as hell,” she spoke in as deadpan a voice as she could manage, directing her attention to the very interesting wall behind Jasper’s shoulder. “I’m not hanging around you while you’re drunk anymore, though. And I would really appreciate it if you would give me some space for a while, at least until after we drop Peridot off, so I don’t have to deal with you being a jealous bitch anymore.”

They lived on a boat and worked in the two highest positions on a pirate crew, so she wasn’t entirely sure how possible it would be for Jasper to leave her alone much, but the bigger woman nodded in response anyway. “That’s reasonable enough,” she spoke in a disgruntled tone, and Lapis stepped back into the room. Before she could close the door, though, the brute started talking again, and she had to resist the urge to slam it. “If you weren’t with Peridot, though…”

“Can we talk about this crap when the sun is actually up?” Lapis snapped before the sentence could be finished, eyes narrowing into a glare. “I don’t really trust anything I say at one in the morning, and I’m too tired to really deal with this. I appreciate that you came back to apologize, but I don’t want to have an in depth conversation with you this late.”

Jasper could only nod in response before Lapis shut the door with an unintentional slam and stormed back to the bed, collapsing face first into the soft blankets right next to her lover.

* * *

 

It was only a couple of hours later that Lapis woke up with a gasp, sitting up straight in bed and glancing around the darkened room for any sort of threat. She couldn’t remember what her nightmare was about within moments of returning to consciousness, but her heart still pounded with all the force of a drum against her ribs and the pupils of her eyes were dilated to thin pinpricks in navy irises.

The process of her breathing relaxing was slow, and only the sight of Peridot sleeping peacefully next to her, chest rising and falling underneath the blankets and her breathing slow, managed to convince her that everything was fine and there was nothing dangerous in the room. She let out a deep sigh and finally realized the chill against her bare upper body, goosebumps rising against her olive flesh and a shiver running up her spine. She had no idea how it got to be this cold, but she wasn’t happy about it, burrowing her way back underneath the covers and wrapping her arms around her lover.

Peridot stirred slightly against her, moving to rest her full weight up against Lapis’ and nudging her face to rest against her collarbone. Lapis sighed and ran a hand through her love’s blonde hair, glancing over at the window leaking the light of a full moon into the room. A thick blanket of silence covered the inn, and possibly even the entirety of the village, and while the captain was thankful for the peace she was also uneasy at the idea of being left alone with her thoughts. She was too awake to fall back asleep quite yet, still pretty alert thanks to the nightmare that woke her up even if she couldn’t necessarily remember what it was about.

The clock on the wall was still visible in the late light, and the hour arm was just a little past three. Goddammit, the universe just didn’t want her to sleep more than a couple hours at a time tonight, did it? She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, trying to focus on the steady breathing coming from the young princess next to her. Everything about the sleeping Peridot at the moment was pretty calming, and that calm brought with it a quiet sense of dread.

She couldn’t become dependent on her, not now, not ever. She needed to nip any further feelings she might have towards the princess at the bud. So Lapis steeled herself against the cold air that she knew was coming, and removed the covers from on top of her.

Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out very well, as the sudden cold awoke Peridot as much as it made her flinch. “What’s wrong?” the sleepy blonde asked, drowsy green eyes blinking open to look Lapis. Immediately, she felt guilty, and returned the covers back to their rightful place.

“I was just thinking about going for a walk,” the pirate replied simply, a small spike of guilt in her chest and a heavy sigh escaping her lungs. She hated that the one time - the  _ one time _ in all her years of sleeping around and dabbling in brief romantic relationships that usually ended in the death of her partner - she actually fell in love, she would have to leave her after such a short time. “I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep, and I didn’t want to keep you up or anything…”

“Well, you already woke me up, so stay here,” Peridot yawned and nestled up close to Lapis again, and that alone was enough to break her will and convince her to stay put with a sigh. She kept one hand gently running through the princess’ hair and leaned her cheek against her forehead, gaze settled on the window once more. She felt comfortable and safe, and no matter how much she tried to tell herself not to feel them the positive emotions just outweighed the bad. She knew it would hurt later, and she knew she would regret every moment of this, but she couldn’t make herself stop.

All of the positive emotions were just going to turn around and transform into hurt the moment she said goodbye. Her friendship with Jasper was strained because of her feelings towards Peridot, and she had endangered most of her crew just to try and get her home. If she had been told about any of this just a month ago, she probably would have laughed and considered it a joke.

This wasn’t a joke. This wasn’t just a brief commitment that she could get over in a few days. This wasn’t something she would forget.

So why couldn’t she make herself regret it or make herself stop?


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis is giving Peridot the silent treatment. Peridot doesn't appreciate that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE MIGHT BE STABLE UPDATES FROM NOW ON

Peridot was impressed by how quickly the ship had been repaired and was ready for sailing again, but she was also almost bitter about it. She’d been counting on spending a lot of time on land before getting back to open waters, and she was beginning to dread the day that she would have to go back to royal duties and leave Lapis and adventure far behind. She knew that she needed to be a princess and work up her skills in her kingdom so she could replace her mother, but she was no longer looking forward to it and was just preparing out of necessity at this point.

Every time she looked at Lapis, pain shot through her heart. She was in love with the pirate, even if she had yet to say it out loud, and the last thing in the world she wanted to do was leave her behind to rule a kingdom. Maybe she could protect her from the land, make some laws illegalizing hunting her down; but that wouldn’t be anywhere near actually being with her. It was silly, she thought, to want to break decades of tradition just for a love affair. But she couldn’t help her emotions.

The pirate seemed to be a lot better at handling this whole thing, but Peridot couldn’t help but notice her becoming a little more distant than usual in the day following their return to the sea. When they talked, the captain’s responses were a lot more short and clipped than she was used to, and when they were physically intimate, Lapis seemed to be unwilling to take anything past hand holding - she wouldn’t even give her a kiss on the cheek, as she normally did. The princess was a little worried that she had done something wrong, but she was willing to assume that the pirate was just having an off day and that she would be back to her usual affectionate and flirty self soon.

Boarding the Crystalled Mirror again and leaving the town went smoothly - way more smoothly than Peridot had expected, honestly. Supplies were already onboard and most of the crew was eager to get back on the waves again (especially Jasper, for reasons the princess wasn’t about to ask about with the venomous glares constantly sent her way), so before the sun had even completely peeked over the horizon the massive ship was en route to Delmarva once more.

And Pearl made Lapis swear on her father’s soul not to go into siren territory again.

Peridot expected the captain to begin acting normally as soon as they had taken off and she was back in her element, but there was no such luck. She was still brushed off and even outright avoided, to the point that she chose to hide away with Sapphire in the kitchen for the time being while waiting for Lapis to get out of whatever rut she was in. She was pretty annoyed, because their time together was limited and she wanted to spend as much time with the pirate as possible, but she supposed the best thing to do at the moment was keep her distance.

Sapphire was pretty attentive as she griped about it, baby Garnet held on one shoulder and her good eye keeping unwavering attention on Peridot’s face. Something was broiling on the stove, and occasionally she would need to get up and stir it, but for the most part the princess actually was confident that she was being listened to. That was pretty rare, as usually people just tuned her out when she started rambling, and she was continuously more and more impressed by the cook’s patience.

“Lapis just doesn’t know how to deal with her feelings,” Sapphire finally spoke after a moment of Peridot’s silence, holding her daughter against her shoulder as she stirred whatever kind of stew was on the stove. “She gets like this often, not just with you. Normally, she’s trying to ignore whatever she’s feeling so she never has to say it. Just give her time and be patient with her. She’ll have to stop avoiding you eventually.” She said this with such a matter of fact tone that Peridot took her word for it.

But she still sighed heavily and plopped herself on the ground, doodling in the dust on the floor with her index finger. “I wish she would _ stop _ giving me the silent treatment. We don’t have enough time together for her to be immature about her feelings. She should just be up front with me so that we can carry on with our lives.” She knew that was easier said than done, and that being honest about feelings was bound to turn out painful for at least one of them, but she still thought honesty was the best policy - especially considering their relationship.

“Your lack of time together might be why,” Sapphire replied in an infuriatingly calm and reasonable tone, turning to face the princess again. “If the feelings she’s harboring are stronger romantic feelings than either of you previously thought, doesn’t it make sense for her to not want to be honest about them? It sounds to me like it’s something like that,” she shrugged. “Lapis has been hurt a lot in her life; she was betrayed and abandoned after her father died by men that helped raise her, and all of her romantic relationships have crashed and burned badly. That’s the reason she’s been sleeping with Jasper the last year or so. She doesn’t want to be latched onto a relationship that’s going to hurt her. For whatever reason, though, she decided to pursue a relationship with you despite knowing that it will end badly. My theory is just that she’s trying to put up emotional walls before she gets badly hurt.”

The princess opened her mouth with the intent to respond, but closed it quickly when she realized that she honestly didn’t know how to reply to that. It was understandable, and it definitely sounded like the Lapis she knew and had come to love. It made sense that she would want to avoid being hurt, and Peridot honestly had to think about what to say to that for a while.

“Communication is key in a romantic relationship,” she finally spoke slowly, considering each word before it left her mouth. “If we can communicate our feelings and emotions and handle them like adults, then we can lessen the hurt felt by both of us. That’s only logical. She should tell me how she’s feeling herself so that we can work through it.”

Sapphire nodded in response as if it had been the most easy thing in the world to realize, and Peridot decided immediately that she needed to find Lapis and start a conversation with her. Quickly, she thanked the cook before hurrying up back to the deck… and immediately coming very close to barreling into Amethyst, who was carrying a rather large sack of food in her arms. “Do you know where Lapis is?” she questioned quickly, glancing around the deck and a little disappointed when she couldn’t see the captain in plain sight - not even up by the wheel steering the ship.

“I think she’s been moping in her quarters all day,” Amethyst replied with a shrug, raising an eyebrow at Peridot’s jumpiness. “I think a visit from you might brighten her up, though. You look like you have more energy than you know what to do with.”

“No, I just know what I need to do! Thanks!” She grinned brightly and sidestepped the pirate, making a beeline for the captain’s quarters. She hadn’t been in them since they got back on the ship, and she was a little excited to sleep in the familiar room again, but that was getting ahead of herself. At the moment, her focus was entirely on talking to Lapis.

Surely enough, she found said captain sitting in a chair and looking wistfully out at the turbulent waves outside of the window. Peridot found herself faltering, hesitating at the door and holding onto the doorway tightly as she worried her lower lip between her teeth and contemplated whether or not to actually carry through with this. She was partially afraid that she would just make things worse; she may have been the diplomatic future for her nation, but she still had quite a bit of anxiety when it came to actually socializing with people over important manners.

Regardless, she sucked in a deep breath and entered the room the rest of the way, slowly approaching Lapis silently. When she was close enough, she reached out and gently touched the captain’s shoulder; she felt guilty immediately when she tensed up and whirled around quickly with startled blue eyes and a fist ready to lash out and let her defend herself. “Jesus, Peridot, don’t scare me like that,” the captain chastised her as soon as she recognized who was standing before her… and when she  _ really _ realized it, her reaction hurt more than the initial fear had.

Lapis sort of looked like she’d just been punched, and she quickly turned away to look back out the window. Peridot took a pained breath, really unsure of what to say, before just opening her mouth and going for it. “I think we should have an actual adult conversation about this,” she declared with as much finality as she could muster talking to a clearly distressed pirate. “Because just avoiding me isn’t going to make the situation hurt any less. It’s just going to cause us both pain and regrets. Shouldn’t we be spending as much time as we can together?”

The captain huffed slightly and leaned forward, hunching a little and rubbing her face. In that instant, Peridot thought that she looked so much older than nineteen, but she wasn’t about to say it. “We were stupid to do this,” Lapis finally spoke after a few seconds of silence, in a tone that sounded so unnaturally small and sad from her voice. “We both knew that we would just end up hurt. We can’t be together. Not forever, anyway. You have a kingdom to inherit. I have a ship to run. There’s no compromise that we can make, even if we both want to. This is just going to hurt us both, and we’re rushing into it like complete idiots. So I decided to stop talking to you unless totally necessary, because I think that if we already have some distance it’ll hurt less.”

“Well, it won’t.” Peridot’s voice held more confidence than she really felt, and she gently took a hold of the pirate’s shoulders. “Look, it’s going to hurt either way, but just avoiding me isn’t going to solve anything. It’s just going to hurt me now and give me something bad to look back on - and the same goes for you, too. We need to think about our present feelings. Not just logically, but also psychologically! It’s not good for us to not be talking!”

Lapis heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed at her eyes, a small smile appearing at one corner of her lips. “You’re infuriating,” she commented with a tone that made it easy to tell she wasn’t actually mad. “I’m just trying to protect both of us, Peridot. I just don’t want us both to be hurting years and years into the future to the point it interferes with everything else.”

Peridot was going to come up with a long winded response to that, but her first instinct was to move to Lapis’ front, grab onto her, and kiss her with all the heat of a hundred suns. So that was exactly what she did, and the pirate gasped slightly in response - but her hands went to hold onto her sides instead of to push her off, so the princess took that as an okay. It took her several moments to break out of the kiss and breathe out a few words.

“To hell with our future feelings.”

And she could tell from the way she was pushed back onto the bed that Lapis agreed, for now.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say the "L" word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as of later this month this fic is going to be officially 1 year old...... is that crazy or what

Their post coitus snuggles were Lapis’ favorite part of any sort of intimacy. Sure, her plan had failed and she was frustrated with herself beyond words because of that, but at least they both got some pleasure out of it and she didn’t have to keep ignoring the existence of the girl she was now undeniably in love with. She had managed to shut up the part of her mind that was trying to protect both of them from themselves for the last half hour or so, and that had been enough time to improve her mood immeasurably for at least the next day.

But the self preserving part of her mind was a beast, and beasts never slept for too long. They kept awake well into all hours, and sometimes they were quieter, but they always spoke up again. The same went for Lapis’ caution in proceeding in her relationship with Peridot. It was just going to cause them both pain, and  _ she _ was going to be partially at fault because she was older than the princess, and she was the captain of the ship she was on, and goddammit, she thought she knew better than this. She thought she could handle a casual relationship with someone she had romantic interest in. She thought she could get emotionally attached to somebody without building up to pain and misery.

She was wrong. She always was, every single time. Mentally, she promised herself that she would never do this again. She would never fall in love again, and she would never get this attached to anybody again. Lapis stayed awake into the wee hours of the morning, glaring at the ceiling and trying to keep herself calm by feeling the movements of the ship coinciding with the waves - and she was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t notice when her lover shifted and blinked into consciousness next to her until she spoke.

“What are you thinking about?” Peridot asked in a voice made heavy by sleep, her cheek nuzzling against Lapis’ shoulder. A burst of fondness ran through her chest, though that gave way rather easily to pain. She didn’t understand why her heart insisted on being so preoccupied with a princess she couldn’t keep. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just break things off easily - and she didn’t understand why Peridot could find it in her to return her affections.

“Us,” the captain responded softly, finding absolutely no point in being vague or lying to her lover. “How we probably rushed into this, how I wish we didn’t have to get hurt by splitting up. Whether or not I’ll ever be able to get over you.” She closed her eyes, rather tired from her excessive thinking and comforting by the other girl beside her. Her arms wrapped tightly around Peridot, and for the first time in years Lapis felt tears building up in her throat that she forced down. She didn’t continue to speak, despite having a million more things to say, because she didn’t want the princess to see her weak and vulnerable. Silently, she cursed herself for getting emotional.

“I wish we didn’t have to separate too, but I don’t think we rushed it,” the princess spoke in a soft and gentle tone, and Lapis was vaguely aware of warm lips pressing against her cheek. “We’ve discussed every step of this, and we knew what we were getting ourselves into. If… if it’s any comfort, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over you either. It feels like we’ve known each other way longer. It kinda feels like this was meant to be, in a weird way.”

“I feel that too,” Lapis confirmed quietly, opening her eyes and turning her face to look at the sleepy freckled face of her lover. For a few moments, they lay in silence together, soft and sleepy breathing the only sounds in the captain’s quarters; subconsciously, each was trying to memorize the other, memorize this moment so that they would have something to hold onto even when they knew that they would never see each other again. As much as they both wished that it wouldn’t, they knew that it had to happen. As much as it hurt, they couldn’t avoid it.

“I love you,” Peridot murmured softly as she closed her eyes and snuggled back up against Lapis, apparently completely unaware of how thoroughly she had just taken the pirate by surprise. The first thing that she felt when she heard those quiet words was joy and warmth that spread out from her chest into her head and down to her fingers and toes, elatedness at having the younger girl feel the same way that she did, utter and complete joy and relief that she didn’t have to pretend that she just felt simple attraction now.

But then there was nothing but hurt.

Pain that made it feel like somebody had taken a knife and shoved it through her ribcage and heart and was now methodically operating to tear her heart past repair. Pain that she tried not to communicate, because the way to respond to a declaration of love from somebody you adored was  _ definitely _ not to burst into tears even if you know nothing can come out of it. So as much as Lapis wanted to cry and scream until all that pain went away, she just swallowed.

Shakily, she pressed a kiss against Peridot’s hairline and held her a little tighter, closing her eyes and trying to keep her breathing stable so that she didn’t cry. Quietly, she nudged her face against the side of Peridot’s, and when she spoke up and responded she was a little embarrassed by the broken and hoarse sound of her voice.

“I love you, too.”

She wasn’t going to lie. She wasn’t going to try to hide. She needed to be honest - she didn’t care if it was going to hurt later at the moment. She just wanted to care about Peridot.

* * *

 

The worst thing about being the captain of a pirate ship was that you needed to get up every morning just before the sunset, regardless of how much sleep you got. That was the only part of her job that Lapis absolutely despised, and she made no secret about it whenever she got up late and Pearl had to poke her head in to wake her up. She was certain that she would be miserable all day when she fell asleep, knowing that she would only have had two hours of sleep and that she would be in a bad mood probably for the rest of the day until she went back to bed.

So to say that she was confused would be an understatement when she blinked her eyes open and the midday sun was glaring in upon the two young lovers from the massive window of the quarters. Lapis groaned, unaccustomed to the light, and threw one arm over her eyes; she didn’t dare move the other from its place still wrapped around the peacefully sleeping Peridot. The first thought that popped into her head was that she was glad that she had been allowed to sleep in after having so much trouble with exactly that through most of the night.

But then came annoyance that her sleep schedule was probably fucked five ways to Sunday and they might be even further behind on everything since the crew was usually pretty dormant without her around. And maybe just the faintest hint of concern for Pearl’s safety, because there was no way the thin woman would ever in a thousand years allow her to sleep in past dawn - and that was at the very latest, if she was feeling generous. She must have been either hurt or talked into just letting Lapis sleep.

As carefully as humanly possible, Lapis peeled herself away from Peridot, hoping silently that she would remain asleep as the older of the two left to question her crew. The princess shifted a little in her sleep and grumbled, so the captain gently replaced her own body with a pillow as she slipped out from underneath the warm safety of the covers and stretched as soon as she reached a standing position. She remained where she was for a moment, watching her darling princess sleep for what was probably a creepy amount of time, before scrambling to pull on the pants that she had abandoned on the floor and stepping out of the quarters and onto the deck.

She took a deep breath of the morning air and listened to the chattering of Amethyst and Jasper and the waves crashing against the ship for a few moments. Part of her genuinely thought that she was going to get some bad news as soon as she confronted Pearl, so she was determined to take her time with it and enjoy the quiet peace of the early afternoon while she could, doing her best to ignore the small amount of dread and paranoia pulsing in her chest. The salty sea air and gentle breeze ruffling her disheveled hair normally would have calmed her easily, but now that she was working herself up the only thing that would really help was quelling her fears.

It took her very little time to find Pearl, as the tall woman was standing against the side of the captain’s quarters and watching Amethyst roughhousing with her sister, an oddly fond look in her light eyes instead of one of annoyance. “Hey,” she spoke up, taking a little bit of amusement when Pearl jumped at the sound of her voice and turned towards her with wide eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Why are you giving Amethyst such a weird look?”

“I was just thinking about how lucky I am, since I don’t have to leave her anytime soon,” the quartermaster responded in an oddly sad and far away tone, turning her gaze away from Lapis once more, but looking to the vast sea instead of to the sisters. “I suppose you’re wondering why I let you sleep in so long. The truth is, I just didn’t know how to tell you this…”

“Just spit it out bluntly, Suzuki.”

“... We hit a current overnight that’s carrying us back to Delmarva at a faster rate than we initially anticipated,” the older woman spoke quickly, avoiding Lapis’ gaze as if she didn’t want to watch her reaction. “If the current speed keeps up, we’ll be able to drop Peridot off in just two or three days. I noticed that you were with her when I went to wake you and let you know, but I didn’t want to disturb you. You deserve to have all of the quality time you can get with her.”

Lapis didn’t know how to respond for several seconds. Her first reaction, of course, was surprised; she thought she would have at least a week left at the least, three at most. Following that was sadness; the knowledge that she had less time with her beloved than she thought hurt more than it probably should have - judging by the logic she had been following yesterday, she should have been glad that she had less time to get so attached. And then came the numbness.

She just… didn’t feel anything about it. Maybe some pain in her chest, but generally, she knew that it was coming, so a thick fog settled over her emotions that prevented her from really reacting in front of her friend.

“I see,” she spoke in a tone that was a little more cool and calm than Pearl must have expected, judging by the look she was given. “I’m going to spend the rest of the day with Peridot, if that’s alright. You’re in charge. Make sure Jasper stays at the wheel keeping us on course. I’ll continue my duties tomorrow morning, but for now I would just like to take a break.” She phrased it as though she was asking for permission, but she made a point of keeping her tone clear on the fact that she was absolutely not taking anything other than an affirmative acknowledgement for an answer.

She knew it was careless of her to just leave her ship to her crew, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She just wanted to spend time with her lover; to make sure that she knew how much she loved her before they had to separate forever. Pearl nodded in response to her demands, and she turned on her heel, storming back to her quarters.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot is returned to her mother's kingdom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's not the end yet, there are still seven more chapters ;)

The capital city of Delmarva was a speck in the distance, and Peridot kept her eyes on Lapis’ grim expression. She wasn’t sure how she felt about returning home; on the one hand, she could finally get rid of all those feelings of worry about whether or not she would ever be able to continue her royal duties and her people could stop worrying about her; on the other, she definitely did not want to leave her lover or her new friends for the dust. There was a lump in her throat she couldn’t seem to get rid of, a pain in her heart that she knew was illogical, and too many emotions to sort through properly.

She wasn’t sure how Lapis was dealing with all of this turmoil, but Peridot was coping with the pain of knowing she would have to say goodbye to the crew she had grown so fond of and the woman she had fallen so thoroughly in love with by keeping herself busy. Namely, by continuing to log things, by sorting through what she would need to do when she got back to the kingdom - make a speech, probably, which she wasn’t looking forward to, and pass a law underneath her mother’s nose that would properly protect the Crystalled Mirror and every woman that worked on it for a long time - and by doing various inappropriate and intimate things with her pirate lover.

Now, though, there was nothing to keep either of them busy. Nothing but watch the city crawl to a closer space in the distance. The current had worn off, and Lapis had demanded that the ship be slowed down to avoid getting into any accidents as a result of going too fast so close to a port city, and the wait was absolute agony for the both of them. The knowledge that they would probably never see each other again made the pain even worse.

Several minutes were spent in silence before Lapis finally straightened up with a heavy sigh. Peridot’s gaze followed her closely as she stepped away from the edge of the deck, and the princess hesitated just a moment before following suit and trailing behind her to the captain’s quarters. “I don’t think it would be wise for us to be all romantic in public together,” the captain explained in a tone that was a level of sad and quiet that Peridot hadn’t heard from her before and wasn’t sure she liked hearing now. “So I want to get all of the crying and hugging out of the way now.”

Peridot couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, though it wasn’t entirely an amused laugh. A lump was forming in her throat rather quickly, and she quickly moved forward in order to wrap her arms around Lapis in a restricting hold that was returned quickly and tightly. The princess hid her face against the front of her lover’s shirt, her grip on the older girl strong and unbreakable, and she was barely able to hold back tears as the pirate gently brushed her fingers through her hair.

“I’m in love with you,” Lapis murmured softly, and Peridot felt as though her heart may burst or break apart from how sad she sounded. “And I know it’s illogical or whatever because this might be the last little amount of time we have together, but I just can’t help it. I adore you, and God, I wish I could spend the rest of my life with you. I wish you didn’t have to leave - and I wish you weren’t forbidden from being with peasants, because I would gladly leave behind this ship if it meant I could be with you.”

The sentiment was enough to make Peridot’s eyes water with tears that she stubbornly tried to hold back. She wished that she didn’t have to leave, too, but she was the kingdom’s only princess - there was no spare should she decide to abandon her royal duties, unless her mother had selected somebody to take her place in the time she had been gone already. “I love you, too. And I would leave behind my kingdom and my mother to be with you if I could. But I can’t. I’m the heiress, and the only one that can inherit the Delmarvian crown. I can’t just leave without a good reason.”

Internally, she scolded herself for not thinking that  _ Lapis herself _ was a good enough reason, with everything they had been through together and with the feeling that she was just  **supposed** to be with the pirate captain. But she was a very logic and reason based person, and logic and reason just dictated that the job she had been training for her entire life was more important than her adoration for some ruffian good for nothing criminal that she met because she was kidnapped and needed rescuing.

Maybe someday, if something her mother decided on rubbed her the wrong way, she could decide to leave it all behind. Maybe if her mother truly began acting on the capital punishments she often talked about in a manner of jest, or if she began commanding that Peridot be punished harshly for stepping even the slightest bit out of line. Maybe if something truly dire that made running away the only option, the princess would make an attempt to find her beloved and new friends again.

She doubted it.

“I know,” was all Lapis responded with, though it was accompanied by a heavy sigh and her resting her forehead against Peridot’s. The two lovers shared some silence in which they simply tried to relax in one another’s embrace, and the princess tried desperately to push the pain and dread out of her head just so that she could enjoy the last privacy that she would ever get with her pirate. She tried to relax, green eyes closed and breathing even, and committed everything about Lapis - from the warmth of her arms to the slight muscle that could be felt in her skinny frame, from the way her slightly curly hair brushed and tickled against Peridot’s cheeks to the sound of her slow breathing.

Though she knew that soon she would need to separate from Lapis forever and possibly never see her again, Peridot couldn’t help but feel that she would see her beloved again and might be able to stay with her - but she could push that down as just being wishful thinking. She had duties to fulfill. She had a kingdom to inherit and people to rule. She had a life to live, and she couldn’t just throw it away for love. Maybe if there were another reason, but not just for Lapis.

* * *

 

There was a little drama about who would escort Peridot to the castle and collect the reward that had been offered for her safe return. Lapis had wanted to do it, but Pearl was worried that she would be too obvious about their affair and had insisted that she be the one to do it - but Ruby was aggravated because she was a terrible actress, and tried to get herself and Amethyst into the position. Their departure from the ship was well delayed because the four women had gotten into a rather heated argument about it, until Sapphire broke it up and decided Lapis would be the one to take her.

The walk to her palace was a silent and awkward one. She had to pretend not to know the pirate at all, and Lapis had never been in public in her more casual attire of men’s clothes, so that garnered a lot of stares. Peridot was aware that she looked a little rougher than she had before she disappeared, her hair messy and having not bathed regularly in quite a while, the green dress she was wearing when she was on her walk back but torn and water damaged badly. She wondered how she looked to anyone that didn’t know what had gone on the last few weeks; probably like she had been mistreated, she decided, which was unfortunate because she absolutely did not want Lapis to be accused of that crime.

It was punishable by long torture and death, after all.

When they were close to the palace gates, Lapis slowed down, and Peridot followed suit. She was immediately swept into a tight hug, which she reciprocated quickly, hiding her face against the pirate’s shoulder and struggling not to break down in sobs. “I love you. I’m going to miss you, and I’ll never forget you,” the older girl whispered softly into her ear, and Peridot almost lost her composure right then and there.

“I love you too,” she responded in as hushed a tone, and they held each other in desperate silence for a few more moments, hidden away from the eyes of anyone that would spread the word that the princess was seen in the arms of someone not chosen for her. Neither wanted to let go - not now, not ever - but eventually it became a necessity, and they separated to enter the castle.

* * *

 

Queen Yellow Diamond was a tall and intimidating monarch, all glares and styled blonde hair as the watched her daughter with only the vaguest amount of relief that she was alright and the most venomous stare she could muster at Lapis. Peridot honestly wished she could say that she was glad to see her mother, but she absolutely was not; especially with the glare that her lover was receiving and the punishment for making everyone worry that she was certain she was going to get once it was discovered that she was relatively unharmed.

“Thank you for returning my daughter to me,” she spoke in a tone that was cold and official, and Peridot spared only a glance at Lapis as she gave a rather awkward bow in response. Before the pirate could respond, the queen was speaking again, and the princess returned her attention to her. “One of my soldiers will escort you back to your ship, and give you the reward there. You would do well to hope that nobody discovers anything wrong with my Peridot when she is being cleaned up, or you will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

“I would never dream of hurting her, Highness,” Lapis spoke quickly, and Peridot barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her mother’s paranoia. “Though we did rescue her a few weeks ago from some less savory individuals, so she may have been harmed by them. Princess Peridot was very pleasant to the entirety of my crew - all of us would harm our ship before we were to harm her.” She spoke with a deep honesty that Peridot honestly hoped that her mother would be able to see, but part of her doubted that; Yellow Diamond was very reasonable, but when she held a grudge, nothing could sway her.

And Peridot had no doubt that having her daughter kidnapped from right under her nose was a major blow to her pride, which was grudge worthy in her mother’s eyes.

“We will just have to see,” the queen responded, putting her hand on Peridot’s upper back and making the princess tense ever so slightly at the contact. “Thank you again for ensuring her safe return, Miss Lazuli. The kingdom is grateful for your service, and you will be rewarded handsomely.”

And without even a chance to say goodbye again, Peridot was led away from the pirate she had fallen so hopelessly in love with. She strained her neck slightly to watch as Lapis backed away to leave and was joined by the general Holly Blue Agate, and she was able to spare only a small wave back as she disappeared around the corner.

Peridot was home. Safe and sound, and there to stay.

So why did she feel so terrible, the ache in her heart overwhelming and depressing?

And why did she get the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong?


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis isn't having a very good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did u forget that most of my fics are linked by reincarnation bc i didn't

Lapis wished she could be happy. She really, really did. She had returned her lover safely to her home, and she had earned herself quite a bit of money in the process. But as she walked ahead of a rather intimidating and strict woman that seemed to have no qualms about talking her ear off, she found herself choking down tears and trying desperately to not have a massive and irreversible breakdown that would completely ruin any chances she had at getting out of this affair unscathed physically if not emotionally. She was miserable, and trying to hide it was only making her feel more miserable.

Holly Blue Agate liked to ramble on and on, and Lapis probably would have paid more attention if she wasn’t completely preoccupied with her own self pity party and trying to keep an eye on the larger woman. She didn’t think that she wanted to take a general of the queen’s army to her ship, so a few blocks away from the docks, she suddenly stopped walking and waited momentarily for Holly Blue to notice that she had stopped and approach her with a look of annoyance. “We’re not going to get to your ship if you refuse to continue walking, Captain.”

Said captain shrugged, a lazy roll of her shoulders that she was sure just drove the general up the wall. “No offense, ma’am, but I would prefer not to let a military professional anywhere near my ship or my crew. Your kingdom has done some things to make me not trust you. Would it be possible for you to just give me my payment now and let me walk the rest of the way by myself?” She was sure that her question was reasonable enough; she may have been raised on a pirate ship, but she had been taught to negotiate if she really needed to. So long as she wasn’t attacked immediately, she could handle this.

The other watched her with an eyebrow raised and a small frown on her plump lips. “That is certainly enough to make me suspicious,” Holly Blue responded, crossing her arms over her chest. “The only reason I can think of that you wouldn’t want a general to be by your ship is if you were breaking a law. If there’s nothing wrong, there’s no harm in letting me come by, is there?” Shit. For a second there Lapis forgot how ruled by laws that Delmarva was. Other armies, she could get past easily on their naivete, but this country had a piracy problem.

Maybe it hadn’t been smart at all to try and take advantage of the reward offered, and she should have just let Peridot find her way home by herself. Thoughts ran through Lapis’ head, trying to figure out how she could get through this - she could continue lying through her teeth, she could try to convince Holly Blue that she was a  _ benevolent _ pirate (which was something of a lie anyway), or she could just accept her fate. None of those were particularly attractive options, but she supposed lying would be both the easiest and the most reasonable.

“The truth is,” she spoke slowly, trying to think of a story she could spin quickly. “I’m afraid that making my ship known as the one that saved the princess would get me publicity, you know? I’m just the captain of a passenger vessel, and I don’t need any pirates on my tail because a picture of my ship ended up everywhere.” That seemed reasonable enough to her, and even though the words had spilled out without a second thought, she figured there was no harm in going with it.

The general stared at her with searching blue eyes for a moment, and Lapis thought she could see suspicion and heat disappearing from them - but she supposed that could have been but a trick. “Well, as much as I wish I could say that wouldn’t be the case, you can never be too careful in times like these,” Holly Blue shrugged, and pulled a small bag of golden coins from the pocket of her jacket - it didn’t look like much, but Lapis was well aware that there was more value than from other nations.

“Thank you,” she said in a tone devoid of emotion, spared one more glance at the general, and began walking ahead. She shoved her hands into her pockets and turned her gaze towards the sky, heaving a heavy sigh and thinking about what her future was going to look like, what she could probably buy with the reward money, and Peridot, Peridot, Peridot. She was going to miss her - she would have to write down as much as she could to make sure she never forgot anything, but there was nothing that would ever compare to actually having her nearby…

It didn’t occur to her that she, a pirate, had just turned her back on a military official until the hard back of a gun slammed against the back of her head and she fell to the floor. Lapis was barely able to process what had just happened, her hand going up to her raven hair to feel blood there, before a fist connected with the side of her head and everything went black as she tumbled gracelessly into a forced unconsciousness that left her body feeling heavy. She was barely aware of a pair of arms picking her up and carrying her away from the docks.

* * *

 

As soon as she woke up, Lapis was more annoyed than truly frightened.

Blinking away the blurred coat of her vision and feeling the shadowy tendrils of sleep ebbing away from her mind, the first thought that passed through the pirate’s head was that the room she was in was very big and very green. It seemed to stretch on for miles in any direction. Just as she was beginning to despair at the idea of trying to run through all of that, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and upon staring back at whatever had moved, realized that she was staring back at herself.

She wasn’t in a very large room at all, nor was she in a green room. Rather, the space that she sat alone in was made up entirely of mirrors, and while the effect was pretty cool, Lapis couldn’t help but be terrified. Her heart thudded dully in her chest, and stories of men locked in Yellow Diamond’s infamous ‘Mirror Room’ and being driven to insanity by the solitude and only company being their own reflections rushed through her head.  _ Now _ she was afraid, and she needed to get out of there.

But no escape from this prison had ever been recorded. None had ever been talked about. She did not have any example to look to - and when she tried to move her arms and legs and found that she was bound to the uncomfortable wooden chair she sat in, that sense of hopelessness only grew and festered in her chest. Lapis had been through many frightening experiences in her life, but she was sure that now - held in a cruel and authoritarian queen’s most stable solitary confinement and with the possibility of being tortured into revealing the names of her crew, her  _ friends, _ looming over her head - she had never been so terrified in her life.

She forced herself to take a few deep breaths and closed her eyes in order to try and think calmly and logically. She was sure that Peridot absolutely would not stand for this if she discovered that Lapis was imprisoned, but she couldn’t exactly rely on the princess finding out about what was going on with her… and couldn’t rely on her help if anything about the true extent they felt for each other was revealed. She couldn’t depend on her crew to find out where she was or to help her, and she didn’t know if she wanted them to sentence themselves to death by doing that anyway. She had never heard of anyone being freed from the Mirror Room before without losing their sanity and needing to receive psychiatric treatment first; there was no way she could hope to just wait it out, considering it would take most people months or even years to completely lose their marbles and Lapis was sure that she would  **actually** go mad in that time without the opportunity to fake it.

The captain flexed her hands and looked around the room, trying to find a flaw or a crack in one of the massive mirrors, but every angle she looked in her eyes began to ache at the illusion of expanse that the mirrors gave. She remembered hearing somewhere that one of the mirrors should lead to the outside halls, but she couldn’t tell which it was; maybe she would memorize which angle someone came in when they entered to feed her or give her water or something. She would try to find a way to break the mirror and escape as soon as the opportunity arose.

Lapis’ movement was very limited, so she was unable to do much of anything besides look around and think. She couldn’t find any flaws in the mirrors; she couldn’t find anything to suggest that there was a door nearby; she couldn’t locate anything that would let her even break out of her bindings. She was beginning to get more and more panicked the more time she spent in this room, until it felt like her heart was pounding so hard it was about to burst and her lungs were being squeezed by a boa constrictor. God fucking damn it, she was having a panic attack, and she had spotted it coming too late to try and stop it.

She doubled over and tried to regulate her breathing, fingers curled against the wooden arms of the uncomfortable chair and the puffs of air pushed from her lungs sounding more like wheezes than anything else.  _ You’re never going to get out of this,  _ her mind told her in the taunting voice of her dead father.  _ You failed, you were too busy thinking about your own misery to be reasonable and think about the fact that you were with the fucking general of Yellow Diamond’s army. And now you’re here, your crew won’t leave without you, and you put everyone in danger. _

Still, Lapis did her best to ignore the intrusive thoughts and try to focus on the things that she knew, that could keep her grounded. Her name was Lapis Lazuli, she was nineteen years old, she was the captain of the Crystalled Mirror. She was smart and strong and she had friends that were counting on her to get her shit together and get back to her ship. What would Pearl say? Probably something soothing, or something about her wasting valuable escaping time by freaking out.

What would Peridot say?

Peridot would probably sit down with her and hold her and reassure her until she was calm. An ache ran through Lapis’ chest; she missed her terribly, but imagining her as though she was there with her was enough to permit her to calm down somewhat. As her breathing slowed down, a brief image of her lover with green skin and horns flew threw her mind, but it disappeared as quickly as it came and she was left alone in the Room of Mirrors with a somewhat clear mind.

She was just beginning to try to think of a way to escape when the wall to her right slid open, and she glanced over with wide eyes as a tall soldier she didn’t recognize stepped into the room. She cracked her knuckles and stared the pirate down with cold eyes, and Lapis was barely able to register that she knew where the exit was now before the soldier pulled out a whip that she could only assume was going to be used on her.

“I have a few questions to ask you, and you  _ will _ answer them honestly.”

Lapis gulped.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot tries to get used to being back home, and is visited by her mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey the fanfics are slowing down a bit now because i'm working on a novel, sorry xo
> 
> ALSO IT IS OFFICIALLY THIS FIC'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOTS

Peridot was fretted over and doted on from the moment that her mother called upon her nursemaid and the palace doctor to make sure that she was well and unharmed. She was annoyed by the attention, but permitted herself to be examined (including a very embarrassing and intrusive check to make sure that her hymen was still intact - which it was, thank the stars for Lapis getting her turned on enough to stretch it) and bathed and put in one of the fancy and frilly green dresses that she hated but was expected to wear as the crown princess. She found that she hated being royalty without the ability to make any decisions or speak for herself, but didn’t complain.

She missed Lapis something fierce. Peridot didn’t want to think on it too much, of course, but she found herself staring out to the ocean and wondering if the pirate had made it out of the area of Delmarva yet. Wondering how she was doing, if she was going to be okay through whatever Life decided to throw at her this time around. She wished that there was some way to communicate with her, but letters were unreliable and she was untrackable, and Peridot didn’t want to put anybody in danger by asking a messenger to find the captain of the Crystalled Mirror.

She thought that she had accepted the fact that she would most likely never see Lapis again, especially since she probably wouldn’t be permitted out of the castle again at least until her coronation. The fear of her being kidnapped and disappearing again would be too high, and her mother would most likely blow a blood vessel if she learned that Peridot was thinking about sneaking down to the docks every so often to see if she could rendezvous with a pirate that showed up occasionally.

Would Lapis ever even return to Delmarva again? Her face would probably become well known as the hero that rescued the beloved princess, and she probably wouldn’t want the attention. That would only make it difficult to carry out her business and her life as she wanted to, and Peridot definitely didn’t wish that upon her lover (ex lover now?). She would much rather Lapis be safe than have her risk her privacy and potentially even her life to come and visit her. She would much rather Lapis be happy than Peridot herself be happy. She cared more about the pirate than she cared about her own kingdom - perhaps that was a sad realization to come to, but it was one.

Now that she’d had a taste of adventure and what life was like outside of her castle, she only wanted more. She wanted to go out and find new things, see new places, and do so with Lapis at her side. She wanted to live life more riskily than she had thus far - she wanted to be happy. She couldn’t focus on what she wanted when she was the sole child of the queen, but that wouldn’t stop her from wishing and longing for more.

She was not left alone for several hours, and when peace finally came Peridot was relieved. She fell back on her large, soft bed with a heavy sigh, feeling grateful for the fact that she at least had a nice bed without the jerking of waves; but she even missed that, she decided, as she closed her eyes and tried to think about whether she wanted a nap or to think. Typically, a nap would have won out, and even though it did she found herself wide awake with closed eyes for a while as she tried to not regret her decision to return to the kingdom instead of staying with Lapis.

Her heart was broken, and it was her own fault. She swallowed down tears that threatened to spill at any moment, not wanting anybody to walk in on her in the middle of sobbing her eyes out and get the wrong idea of what she was thinking about or question what was going on. Peridot hated that she now had no privacy whatsoever; it was ridiculous that she had more of a guarantee of privacy when she was living with a bunch of pirate women than she did living in a massive castle.

Surely enough, the door to her bedroom opened and somebody stepped in. Peridot quickly forced herself to stop feeling so intensely and sat up quickly in her bed, watching with wide and surprised eyes as her mother entered the room. Queen Yellow Diamond never made an attempt to get any closer to her daughter; it was unheard of for her to come into her bedroom alone when there wasn’t a big meeting coming up. She didn’t stop being surprised when the tall woman walked towards the bed and sat down next to her, pulling her into a tight hug. She tried to think of the last time her mother had even shown her any affection, let alone hugged her; she wasn’t sure it had ever happened.

“I’m so glad you are alright,” Yellow Diamond spoke with uncharacteristic softness and affection, holding the stunned princess close. “I know I don’t spend enough time with you, and I’m sorry. I should have been there, or kept you in the castle so that you couldn’t be kidnapped. I promise to try and be closer to her; there’s no longer any excuse.”

Peridot was deeply surprised, unsure of how to respond to this; this was what she had been longing for, through seventeen years of longing and loneliness, but she was sure that it wasn’t genuine. Yellow Diamond was not a caring woman; the princess wasn’t sure if the queen even had any emotions, and if she did they were limited to anger and annoyance. “Thanks, Mother,” she managed to respond, trying to keep how baffled she was out of her voice as she decided to just give the queen the benefit of the doubt and accept the motherly affection.

“I just want you to know that I care about you, Peridot,” Yellow Diamond’s voice was still soft, and Peridot didn’t know what to think of the kindness being shown to her. She wanted to believe that it was genuine and real, but the childhood that she had was evidence enough that it wasn’t. She wanted to think that her mother cared about her as more than just an heiress and someone that would keep her legacy alive, but the way she was typically treated by the queen was enough to make her think that there had never been any affection towards her.

“I know,” she lied in response, her mind working in overdrive to try and figure out exactly what was going on. Was she trying to manipulate her into being content? Did she know, somehow, what had conspired on the pirate ship? Peridot doubted it; she had no clue of  _ how _ she would find out, because surely Lapis was back on the open ocean by now and Peridot had vowed over and over to never, ever say a word about her adventures and love affair to anybody that hadn’t witnessed it while it was happening. Did the queen somehow have the ability to see into her thoughts? Somehow, she didn’t think that was possible in the least. She was so wrapped into her thoughts that she almost didn’t hear her mother speak up once more.

“I think you’ll be glad to know that we managed to capture that dastardly pirate that kept you on her ship for so long,” Yellow Diamond sighed softly, running her fingers through her daughter’s hair, and Peridot unintentionally tensed up, her breath catching and fists clenching. “We have her in for questioning right now - she hasn’t told us much of anything, but she sounds like she likes you, and I can’t even tell you how disgusting that is to me, sweetheart. I’m so sorry you had to deal with her.”

Lapis had been captured, and she was in danger. That was the only thing that Peridot could think about for the moment. She wasn’t in the ocean at all, but she was suffering through her mother’s twisted interrogations at the hands of whatever soldier had been placed in charge of the case. She pulled away from her mother almost instinctively, and was acutely aware of panic in her eyes as she spoke quickly. “Mother, you need to let her go. She didn’t do anything to me, she’s a good person and she would never hurt anybody that didn’t deserve it first. Please.”

Her mother didn’t seem to take that response very well - if anything, she seemed to be more worried than she had been beforehand. “Oh, you must have been through so much. You’re talking like you’ve been manipulated into caring about her. I promise you we’ll punish her as soon as she admits to whatever she did to you, Peridot. Just sit tight and know that we’re working on it.”

Panic was beginning to build in Peridot’s chest, and she wanted more than anything to get her lover freed. She  _ needed _ to convince her mother of the truth; that even though Lapis was rough and sometimes vulgar and robbed some ships, she was a good person that could be gentle when she needed to. “Mother, no, she never manipulated me. All she did was rescue me from the men that kidnapped me. She’s been nothing but sweet. Please let her go - she doesn’t deserve any of this, all she ever wanted to do was help me and get me back home, I promise.”

_ I love her, _ she wanted to add, but she seriously doubted that would go well. If her mother knew that she was in love with the pirate, then the punishment suffered by Lapis would be even worse and Peridot would be prevented from talking to anybody at all outside of those trusted by the royal family until she was forced into an arranged marriage eventually. She needed to keep their relationship secret and try to free Lapis just by talking about how good she was - not that she thought that would work, because her mother was stubborn and never moved on from any sort of hatred as soon as it had settled into her chest and begun festering. She either blamed Lapis for kidnapping the princess or disliked her for saving Peridot when the soldiers she’d had patrolling the ocean couldn’t.

“Then where are the men that kidnapped you if they’re so different from Lapis Lazuli?” the queen asked, and when Peridot struggled to find some sort of answer other than ‘she murdered them’ and failed, Yellow Diamond simply shook her head before speaking again. “I thought so. Listen, we think that she’s the Phantom Siren, and if we can apprehend her it’ll be all the better. She’ll stop sinking our ships, and we’ll have better security and safety. Just trust me, please. Everything will be fine.”

Peridot couldn’t argue with her. She was realizing that very quickly as her mother shot down every attempt to free Lapis from the grips of her kingdom. She needed to do this herself, and she was trying to orchestrate a plan to do it herself as she spoke up once again. “Alright, Mother. Whatever you think is best,” she spoke with a soft sigh. “Would you please leave me once more? I’m very tired and I would like to get some sleep.”

The queen nodded with a small, sad smile. “Very well, Peridot. Get some rest and know that we will take care of everything. Have a good nap.” With that, she pressed a small kiss against the princess’ forehead at which Peridot flinched back, and rose to her feet. Yellow Diamond spared only a glance at her daughter before she left her bedroom and stepped out into the hall.

Immediately after her mother vanished from sight, Peridot jumped to her feet and began pacing, trying to figure out some way that she could free Lapis without getting the both of them into more trouble.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chairs are treated poorly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chair abuse is not ok kids

Lapis lost track of how many times she had been struck with the whip or punched in the face during her time in the room of mirrors. The soldier seemed intent on pushing answers out of her, and after her lies had been disregarded she just stopped talking. She supposed that she would rather be abused this badly than know that her friends would be imprisoned or killed if she gave their actual names, and she refused to put any truth towards what her relationship with Peridot had been for fear of dooming her to some sort of punishment or death.

She was perfectly fine with dying and taking all of the information she held to the grave if need be, but she didn’t understand why this was so drawn out. Everything hurt, and she longed to be put out of her misery, but the interrogation just dragged along even as her face and body became more and more bruised or cut up. She was sure that they wouldn’t kill her - if they did, they wouldn’t have the valuable information about piracy and her crimes that the captain of the Crystalled Mirror held. Though that had been a comfort at first, it became more of a curse as time went on and she developed a death wish.

She must have held out much longer than was reasonable, because after God knows how long the soldier stopped and lowered her whip. Lapis could still see fairly clearly despite one of her eyes being swollen shut, and she watched her cautiously as she sneered at the prisoner. “I’ll be back for you later,” was all she said, sounding much more smug than she probably should have been before pressing her hand against the mirror from which she had come, stepping out and leaving the moment it had slid away.

The pirate gave herself just a moment to catch her breath and gather her bearings before deciding that she needed to move quickly if she wanted to get out of there in a reasonable amount of time. Lapis immediately began pulling lightly against the bounds on her wrists and ankles, and nearly cried from relief when she noticed that the whip must have loosened her left hand. With a great amount of difficulty, she leaned over to the rope, and began picking at the frayed area with her sharp canines in an attempt to break the rope and begin working towards freeing herself.

It took a minute or so, but she was able to break the rope and free her hand, and then she was quick in untying her right wrist and her ankles. Lapis stood quickly and had to steady herself against one of the mirrors, her head spinning and her legs screaming in protest due to the beating she had received. The pirate didn’t allow herself to dwell on it, though, and only permitted herself to catch her breath before quickly turning to the mirror from which she had seen the soldier left and pressing her hand against it.

She groaned when it didn’t open for her, no matter with how much or how little force she pressed against it with. Lapis planted herself back into the wooden chair, holding her head as she tried to think of a way that she could get out of this and get back to the ship. It took her far longer than it should have, but eventually she figured out that it would  _ probably _ be the best route to just break the glass of the mirror door and make a run for it as best she was able. No, better than she was able. She couldn’t afford to get caught trying to escape and be returned to the mirror room.

The captain lifted the chair she was sitting on with a bit of difficulty and quickly moved over to the door she had been trying to open, quickly swinging the object into it with more force than she had known herself capable of when this injured and hearing glass shatter almost immediately. Lapis let out a disbelieving and halfway hysterical laugh and continued hammering away at the mirror until enough of it had been broken away that she could crawl through and she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to lift anything at all for the next several weeks.

Lapis lowered herself to her hands and knees so that she could crawl out of the small room, wincing ever so slightly but not allowing herself to react otherwise at the sharp edges of the glass scraping into her ruined shirt and upper back. As soon as the pirate was safely to the other side, she stood quickly in the tight and darkened hallway where she had found herself and glanced at her surroundings before making a run for it in the direction she hoped was correct.

Every step was a strain on her battered body, and her vision began to swim as she overexerted herself. Lapis’ breath came out in rough wheezes, and she almost wanted to cry at the pure agony that had taken over her back, legs, arms, probably her entire being. It took her very little time to tire out, and she wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or terrified to hear hurried footsteps rushing in her direction - relieved at the idea of hiding herself away for a while, terrified at the prospect of being captured and probably punished more thoroughly for being disobedient.

She rapidly looked around at her surroundings and, upon finding that there was a side table with a cloth draped over it against a wall, wasted little time in crawling underneath and compressing herself into a little ball so that she could fit properly - she thanked her small height and stature for the first time in a long time, and clasped one hand over her mouth to try and quiet her labored wheezing as whoever had come down the hallway to pass by and probably head to the hallway from which she had come.

* * *

 

Peridot wasn’t stupid, and she knew the castle in which she was raised better than anyone else. She knew the different routes, she knew the way that the soldiers and guards operated, and she knew what she needed to do to try and get Lapis out.

She needed to fabricate some sort of danger to the queen, because she knew that all the guards in the castle would stand to attention and hurry to her aid immediately. As soon as it was known that it was nothing more than a false alarm, they would get back to their positions, so… she needed to create some sort of genuine danger that wouldn’t take too much work.

The princess felt guilty about the idea of causing any sort of harm to her mother, but that sorriness faded fairly quickly when she realized that she was trying to save a (somewhat) innocent person from the clutches of a monarch that was less than kind and far from fair. She would get in trouble if it was realized that she had done something, and that would result in a trial for treason or a mildly smaller sentence - but that didn’t matter to her. Something needed to be done.

She spent longer than she probably needed to examining everything she could do, and it wasn’t until late afternoon that she decided to do something to the throne that wouldn’t be traced back to her but would cause a reasonable amount of pain to her mother. Peridot oped for loosening the entire thing and placing a blade on the inside for her to land on - not only would that work, it would also be rather humorous to know that the cruel queen to get a dagger up her ass.

She waited for Yellow Diamond to leave the throne room with her personal guards in tow before she got to work on the massive chair. The men stationed at either side of the door in the next room were distracted and were used to her antics, so they didn’t even notice her moving around in the throne room; as such, she was mercifully left in peace for the most part as she loosened the screws holding the thing together and removed one end of it to place her trap. Her heart was pounding in her ears as she put it back together and left the room in order to move quickly to a different hallway and wait for the chaos.

Sure enough, soon an enraged and pained cry came from the throne room and every man and woman walking around the halls jumped into action to protect the queen. Peridot was off like a shot down the long hallways immediately, rushing to the room of mirrors that she knew Lapis was being held in - she needed to act as quickly as possible, because the guards would be with Yellow Diamond for a while but they would surely be back to their positions sooner rather than later.

She sprinted down the corridors with more energy and vigor than she ever had before, and when she reached the mirror she had no clue how to deal with what she found there.

The entrance was broken, and though there was blood around the mirror floor restraints lay where they must have fallen. Lapis had gotten herself out before Peridot could get there - and it was probably her own distraction that had allowed her to escape with relative ease and without a soldier apprehending her quickly. She was free, which was good, but she would never navigate her way out of the castle alone.

The pirate couldn’t have gone far, so Peridot jumped into action as quickly as possible, trying to think of all the different places that she could have hidden. One of the tables scattered around the hallways was probably her best bet, so she wasted no time in beginning to throw off the cloths covering them with little consideration for the flowers and objects they displayed. Normally, she might have been a little more careful, but she didn’t have time to think about anything but Lapis and a route out.

When she reached a hallway a little way away, she was tackled to the ground as soon as she lifted the tablecloth from one to glance underneath. She landed on her back, a small grunt leaving her as her breath did as well. Peridot was scared for a split second and shoved whoever had just knocked her over and pinned her off with more ease than she had been expecting. It was only when the person was off of her that she could get a good look at them and figure out their identity.

Though she was more battered than Peridot had ever seen her with bruises and long cuts covering her body, Lapis Lazuli still had fight in her, and the younger of the two didn’t know why that surprised her as much as it did. Maybe it was because she had seen far less injured people incapable of moving.

The two lovers stared at each other for a split second before both simultaneously reached for the other, a tight embrace ensuing that didn’t last nearly as long as either of them wanted it to. Peridot had to pull away and help Lapis to her feet, wrapping her arm around the older girl’s waist and guiding her arm to rest around her shoulders. “I’m going to get you back to your ship,” the princess announced with more confidence than she had possessed moments before. “Everything’s going to be alright. I promise.”

“Now that you’re here, I know it will be,” Lapis responded, and Peridot was saddened by the weak smile that she was given but couldn’t exactly do anything about it. So, supporting her badly injured beloved, the princess began walking down the long hallway and towards the nearest exit that she could think of. She just hoped that the pirate could make it.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot gets Lapis back to the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOBS THIS FIC IS FINALLY ALMOST DONE

It was difficult to be stealthy when you were running away from a very populated castle and through a village constantly on the lookout with a badly injured woman trying to keep up despite a pretty intense limp. Peridot would have loved to slow down and let Lapis take her time, but they didn’t have any time to waste, and even though she felt guilty about it she had to force her lover to keep moving. “Just a little bit further,” she murmured softly as she noticed the pirate continuously leaning more against her; she was trying hard to look strong and appear as if she could keep moving forever, but Peridot knew her well enough and knew the signs of an exhausted person enough that she could see through her.

“I’ll be okay,” Lapis breathed out, and Peridot let out a soft sigh - she didn’t deny that, but she really wished the older girl would be more honest about how badly she was probably feeling. Though she supposed that there probably wasn’t much of a point behind that. “I just… want to get back to the ship. Preferably quickly. And I probably need to dunk myself in salt water for a little while.”

The princess was confused for a moment by that, wondering what she meant, but it took her very little time to remember that she was part siren and healed more quickly when she was in water. “We’re almost to the docks. Just a few more minutes and we’ll be there,” Peridot spoke as she nodded, glancing at the stone street ahead as she continued supporting her lover ahead. The village was surprisingly, worryingly quiet and the streets uninhabited - she had no idea what was going on, and she wasn’t sure whether she should be grateful for it or wary. She didn’t want to waste time by thinking on it, and just continued moving forward, hoping for the best but examining her surroundings in case she needed a place to duck into if the worst were to happen.

To Lapis’ credit, she was doing better than most other people who were covered in bruises and losing a decent amount of blood would be expected to. Her breathing came out in wheezes, and she was unable to walk or even stand upright on her own, but she hadn’t collapsed in a fit of tears from overexertion yet. Peridot was going to have to keep her on bed rest for a while, at least until all of her injuries had healed -

No. She had to stay here, manage the damage control, and run her mother’s kingdom in the future. Part of her was trying to argue and say that she could leave and Yellow Diamond was young enough that she could always have another baby to replace her, but for the most part she needed to be a responsible and reasonable princess. She needed to grow up and move past her childish longing to make her life her own and stay with Lapis forever. She would just have to tell whichever member of the Crystalled Mirror’s crew that she ran into that the captain wasn’t allowed to do anything physically demanding until she was completely healed up.

Alas, Peridot had just done exactly what she wanted to avoid doing - she had become distracted by her thoughts. Distracted enough that her gaze settled onto the stone road as the two continued walking, and she didn’t look up again until Lapis froze in place and she had to stop walking to match the movement and make sure the older girl didn’t fall over or anything - and she couldn’t help but freeze as well when she realized exactly why her lover had felt the need to stop.

A tall and thin soldier stood before them, her eyes staring unblinking at the two lovers as she held her sword in her hand and watched Lapis and Peridot carefully. The princess opened her mouth as if to say something, but the woman stepped a little bit closer before she could. “I  _ should _ take you back to the castle, because this is treason. But I think you have the right idea, Princess. Does she need more help walking by any chance?”

The younger of the two’s first instinct was to accept with a hearty nod, as she had been raised to trust soldiers and accept their assistance under any circumstances, but at the moment she knew that she had to be cautious and avoid doing anything that might get her caught. How a badly injured pirate and a princess nearly incapable of self defense would be able to fight off a soldier of Queen Yellow Diamond’s royal guard, though, Peridot was completely unaware. She didn’t know what to do, and panic was her near immediate response, green eyes wide and mouth opening and closing as if she was looking for something that she could say in her mind.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Peridot,” the soldier simply commented, her hands going up in surrender and her sword dropping to the stones of the road to her side. _ “Everyone’s _ satisfaction is going down in this kingdom. Your mother is hardly a good ruler - there have been whispers of a revolution going around, and you’re a good person. I think it’s best that you take a prisoner and get out of the kingdom, actually, and I’m willing to help you.”

Peridot glanced over at Lapis, who was watching her with her mouth pressed into a frown. There was no way that she could continue to support the pirate much longer, as much as she tried to tell herself that she was able to - and she couldn’t think of any reason a soldier would reasonably tell her about a revolution being planned if she wasn’t being completely honest. She didn’t deny that Yellow Diamond was a terrible woman with questionable motives and terrible morals, and so she didn’t doubt the truthfulness behind the soldier’s words for a second.

That aside, though, it gave her hope. She had an actual reason to leave Delmarva with her beloved pirate now, and she had a reason to never come back - exactly what she had been praying for.

So despite what little reason in her that wanted to protect her family’s legacy, Peridot nodded solemnly and allowed the soldier to step forward and wrap her arm around Lapis’ middle after lifting her sword once more. Said pirate seemed hesitant and looked to the princess for reassurance, and as soon as she got a small smile, she permitted the contact and let the soldier help her in walking the rest of the way towards the docks. Peridot trailed behind quietly, keeping a quiet eye on the soldier’s back.

Once the three women reached the wooden edge of the docks, Lapis pulled away from the soldier and very nearly collapsed, only for Peridot to catch her quickly. One thin hand grasped the back of her dress, and though the blonde didn’t understand the apparent terror present with the pirate, she did her best to be supportive and reassure her by gently squeezing her side. “I would rather not allow anybody besides myself, my crew, and Peridot to know which ship is mine. I hope you understand.”

The soldier hesitated, but nodded. “Alright,” she responded with a shrug. “I wish you the best. Make sure you get somebody to take care of those cuts, or they’ll get infected. Take it easy on the bruises. I’ll send a ship to find you if the revolution begins - the one I send will have a pink flag with a white rose on it instead of white with a yellow diamond, so let them know that it’s you and don’t shoot it down.” She then bowed, a small smile on her face. “Be careful out there.”

“I will, thank you,” Lapis replied, sounding rather impatient in wanting to keep moving. Peridot waited for the soldier to turn and leave before leading her lover down the dock and towards the tall ship that she recognized and that sent a small thrum of excitement in her chest.

Before even a little bit of time passed, the pirate turned quickly to face the princess and watched her with hopeful and pleading blue eyes. “Come with me. Please. We can be happy together. You’ll be safe on my ship with me, and you could be really helpful - you could be our navigator. It’ll be much better than staying here with your mother.”

Peridot continued leading Lapis down the docks, remaining silent. She wanted to say yes; she knew that it would probably be best to join the crew, and she knew that it would be a much happier future even if she was a little bit less safe. She knew before they even reached the ship, she knew for sure that she was going to go with Lapis and the others, and she knew that everything was going to be much better looking out and going forward with her life.

When they reached the ship, Peridot was relieved to hear Pearl yell down at them. “Oh, my god, where have you been? What happened to you?” she demanded as Jasper, Amethyst, and Ruby hurry over to the edge of the deck and look down. “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Would you three get Lapis up here?” she continued, turning towards the stronger women - before she even finished her sentence, Jasper had jumped down from the ship (landing on the wood of the dock with enough force that Peridot was afraid she was going to fall through) and taken Lapis away from Peridot’s arm, lifting her into her own stronger grip, keeping her held close as she backed away from the princess.

“Thank you,” she murmured gruffly, before turning and heading back up to the ship.

Peridot just watched her lover disappear over the edge of the ship, and she was about to turn and leave with the knowledge that the crew didn’t want her to be one of them, but before she could really walk away Amethyst’s voice broke through the silence previously affected only by the crashing waves. “Where do you think you’re going, P-Dot? Don’t you wanna get up here? You’re probably in a lot of trouble if you try going all the way back home.”

The princess didn’t even hesitate before running to the ship, scrambling up the ladder and being pulled up the rest of the way by Amethyst as she reached the top. Peridot was vaguely aware that she wore a large smile on her face, which was returned by the crew and - most importantly - Lapis Lazuli. “What are we sticking around here for? Let’s get going!” the princess crowed, feeling more happy and free than she had in a long time.

The crew hesitated, looking to Lapis for confirmation, and she simply shrugged. “I’m more than ready to get off of land for a while. Jasper, Pearl, go steer us out of her. Ruby, go hang out with your wife or something. Amethyst, help me get back to my quarters and then you’re free for a little while,” the captain confirmed, and the crew dispersed to do as they were told with the exception of Amethyst, who bent over and allowed Lapis to climb onto her back for a ride. Peridot just trailed behind them, a little bit of a skip in her step.

Once Lapis was in a relaxed position against the bed, Peridot moved for her in order to help her out of her clothes and treat her injuries. She blushed a little at the wide smile that the captain gave her, and was unable to help returning it. “Looks like you’re officially a criminal now,” the older girl commented in a fond tone, and the first response the blonde gave was to press a small kiss against her lips.

“I guess I am,” she confirmed, her voice sounding more far away and happy than she could remember it ever being.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if this is sloppy a good portion of it was just me stresswriting because my girlfriend broke up with me yesterday and i was/am taking it really hard and needed to distract myself  
> and thus  
> this chapter was born

“So. The future.”

Lapis looked up slightly when the other spoke, watching as Peridot wiped her wounds down with a piece of cloth soaked in salt water. She was calm, to the point that she was beginning to fall asleep and was ready to snooze away all of the suffering she had been through in the last day, and all of the pain her heart had been through. Her lover seemed to be relaxed as well, the smallest of smiles gracing her features and calm green eyes staring up at the captain - almost unnaturally calm for somebody scrubbing down a lot of cuts, bruises, and blood on her love’s skin.

“I’m not exactly experienced in giving a lot of thought to that,” was all Lapis responded with, leaning back into the cushions holding her in a sitting position slightly. She was weakened, but not really bothered by that, as she knew that she was safe and had faith in Jasper and Pearl’s ability to keep the ship moving. It would only really become a problem if they absolutely  _ had _ to fight off somebody or pull off a raid. “I find that it’s best to just life do as it will, because there’s no point making plans if they’re doomed to never happen. I think we should know that better than anybody.”

The princess snorted faintly, rolling her eyes good naturedly. “Yeah, I know, but we don’t have to plan. We can just talk.” She glanced at the pink scar beginning to take the place of a deep cut that had been there moments before, and Lapis was about to comment on the wonder in her eyes but thought better of it. Peridot climbed onto the bed next to her and curled up at the captain’s side, and she contentedly closed her eyes and leaned her own head against the younger’s.

“We can be together now,” Lapis sighed softly, reaching to lace her fingers with her lover’s and smiling when Peridot held her hand tightly. “I don’t know what there is to talk about, but sure. All I care about is that we’re together and happy. Life can throw whatever it wants at us as long as it doesn’t separate us.” And she meant that, for the most part - she would prefer to not have her ship sunken, for example, but she supposed that if Peridot was at her side she could deal with it. As long as her lover was with her, she felt like she could do anything.

“Agreed,” Peridot hummed, and brushed her lips against Lapis’ cheek - the pirate wouldn’t admit it, but she blushed ever so slightly. “But I feel like I should ask… what our future  _ together _ is going to look like? Do you want to get married someday? Have kids?” She shrugged. “This is the kind of conversation every young couple has, right? That’s a reasonable question?” She sounded a little unsure, and as nervous as Lapis was about trying to answer the question she couldn’t help but be a little amused. She gently squeezed the younger girl’s hand to reassure her before responding.

“I mean, I would love to get married one day, but I don’t know how we can do that since we’re both fugitives now and don’t have legal citizenship anywhere. Maybe somebody could become an ordained priest or something around here?” She shrugged. “As for kids… I don’t know. Maybe. The idea isn’t that attractive right now, but… maybe someday, when we’re a little older and maybe can’t be seafaring criminals anymore because we’re getting older and want to settle down. Maybe when we’ve been together for a long time and don’t risk pulling our kid into any drama.”

“Reasonable enough,” Peridot sniffed, scooting a little closer to Lapis and watching out the window as a curtain of grey clouds hid the blue of the sky from view. The waters were choppy, but not necessarily violent; the captain figured they’d get some rain but not a repeat of the storm that had almost sunk them before. “It’s really nice to be in a relationship where we can actually take our time, you know? Where we aren’t pressured to just get married and start popping out babies immediately.”

“The joys of being off the land, baby,” Lapis laughed slightly, and let go of Peridot’s hand in order to wrap her arms around the younger and hold her close. “No pressure here. Not now and not ever. We’re completely focused on being together and being happy and running this ship. That’s all we have to worry about it, for now and for as long as we want to.” She pressed her lips gently against the princess’ temple, and though she tried to bat the pirate’s face away Lapis could see her cheeks turn pink.

“Maybe just living on the international waters is better than sticking around in a castle after all,” Peridot’s voice took on a tone of sarcasm, as if she had already known that and was just teasing. “I do feel a little guilty about just leaving, though. I mean, Delmarva was everything I ever knew, and I was raised to believe that I was the only chance at the monarchy continued. My mother tried to raise me so that I would be a leader, and what do I do? I risk my life to rescue a wanted criminal and known murderer and run away so that I can be in a romantic relationship with her.”

“I think  _ murderer _ is a little out there,” Lapis sniffed disdainfully, though she tightened her grip slightly around the princess. She imagined what it would be like to have the opposite problem; to leave the Crystalled Mirror, left behind for her by her father, and her crew, which consisted of the best friends she’d ever had and she shared complete trust with. She imagined what it would be like to abandon everything she had ever known - the ocean, the ship, travelling - to anchor herself down in a castle so that she could marry the heiress of a bloodline that was known to be horrifyingly strict and bloodthirsty.

Even the  _ thought _ hurt her; even  _ considering _ it was enough to make her feel guilty. For the first time, she realized what it must have been like for her lover, and she felt  _ bad _ that she was the reason the younger girl had to go through this much pain and emotional turmoil. “I’m so sorry, Peridot,” she murmured softly, letting out a heavy sigh and nudging her face against Peridot’s. “I know you say you’re happy now that you’re away from the kingdom, but…” She shook her head.

“Are you  _ worried _ about me?” the blonde asked, teasing humor in her voice and a shining light in her bright green eyes. “That’s sweet, Lapis, but I made this decision and even if I regretted it - which I don’t - I would have to deal with it. I was miserable. I didn’t know it until I met you and got onboard the ship, but I hated being controlled and I hated having my entire life planned ahead of me before I was even born. I hated my mother and how quick she was to declare war on anybody who crossed her. The only thing I  _ wasn’t _ miserable doing was sneaking away to go for a walk, and I got  _ kidnapped _ while doing that - and I should  _ thank _ the men that kidnapped me, because that was how I met you. I’m  _ free _ now.”

The pirate blinked, and could  _ feel _ her heart melting into a pile of mush and liquid in her chest and a small smile appearing across her face. “Well, I’ll take you to where the wreck of their ship is if you want,” she teased, and it didn’t occur to her that it was a little bit  _ too _ dark for the moment. “I’m glad, though. I can’t imagine what our lives might be like if we never met.”

“A lot lonelier, that’s for sure,” Peridot snorted, smiling up at Lapis with the most adoring expression that the pirate had ever seen on the face of somebody else. “I would still be dealing with training to become the next in a long line of tyrants, and you would probably still have Jasper breathing down your neck and a lot of different people to sink.” She shrugged, though her response had been spoken in a light and joking tone.

“You know, I still have to sink people for money if we want to eat,” Lapis pointed out, and the response she received was nothing but a series of shushing sounds and Peridot’s pointer finger being pressed against her lips in the universal sign for ‘be quiet.’

“Discussing paid violence is not attractive, Lazuli. Just let the moment happen,” the princess’ voice was almost humorously serious, her lips tucked into a small frown and her brows furrowed. The pirate chuckled, a small smile on her face, but stopped talking nonetheless - she would, really, only listen to Peridot when told to shut up, and continued to be quiet until the finger was pulled from her lips.

She was in no hurry, however, to start talking and ruin the moment. As the two lovers sat silently on the bed, the clouds broke apart and rain began falling against the ocean in a peaceful clatter of ambient noise. Lapis found herself doing very little other than watching Peridot’s face, trying to count the small amount of freckles splattered across her nose and cheeks, watching her chest rise and realizing in wonder that there was no need for any more pain; there was no need for any more stress.

They were together. They could be together forever. They would probably have their fights - they were only human - but they wouldn’t have to worry about being forced apart by circumstance, and they wouldn’t have to worry about one of them having to leave to fulfill some higher duty or another. Lapis couldn’t even describe how happy she was about that; she could hardly even fathom how endlessly happy she was to be holding Peridot in her arms and know that she wouldn’t have to let go anytime soon.

“I love you,” she announced quietly, almost inaudibly, unable to stand being quiet and not mentioning how much she adored the younger girl any further. “I love you, I love you so much.” She repeated the phrase quietly, beginning to press kisses against Peridot’s face and barely resisting the urge to laugh at the way the younger girl giggled quietly and attempted jokingly to wriggle away (if the princess had really communicated that she wanted her to stop, she would have - she wasn’t cruel). “I’ll love you until there’s no trace left that I ever existed. I’ll love you until there’s no more stars and no more seas.”

Peridot smiled brightly, her face lighting up like the sky in the morning. The princess pressed herself a little further against Lapis’ side, pushing the pirate effectively off of her cushion of pillows and onto the mattress so that the blonde could lay on top of her. The captain continued pressing kisses against her lover’s face until Peridot nuzzled her face against her throat to hide the blush beginning to form on her face, and Lapis couldn’t help but grin happily at the feeling of hot breath on her neck and the knowledge that they could stay like that for as long as they damn well pleased and  _ nobody _ could ever say otherwise.

“I love you, too,” Peridot responded softly, removing her face from its hiding place in order to press a kiss against Lapis’ lips. The pirate shifted a little so that she could support the both of them on her elbows, ignoring her aching and healing sides when they protested. “I love you more than anything else in the world, and I’m so excited to spend the rest of our lives together.”

And Lapis could do nothing but silently agree.


	26. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i posted the chapter before this like 3 minutes ago so make sure u read that one too :)

Ten years passed.

Lapis and Peridot were happy together; they were free, and their love for one another was deep and very rarely wavered. As time went on, Peridot became an excellent navigator, Lapis became an even better captain, and the Crystalled Mirror continued to be the most feared and quietly respected ship on the ocean. The revolution to overthrow Yellow Diamond was one that the Crystalled Mirror never got involved with, and for several years, their adventures on the open seas were the only thing that really mattered to the couple as well as Jasper, Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire.

However, ten years is a long time, and as said time went on the members of the crew slowly became tired of piracy and wanted to settle down, and therefore drifted away. The first to leave were Ruby and Sapphire, because Garnet was getting bigger and they wanted to find some form of a stable lifestyle to live. Lapis was sad, but she understood - she gave the young couple a bag of money to keep them financially stable and happy for a while, and it was with great sadness and respect that she said goodbye. Coping with the quiet where there should have been Ruby’s yelling and Sapphire’s calm lectures was hard, and it was quite soon afterwards that Pearl and Amethyst followed.

Their departure was far more sudden than Ruby and Sapphire’s had been, as they suddenly decided that they wanted to go after meeting a woman named Rose Quartz in a valley town that the Crystalled Mirror docked in for a while. They simply left a note and ran from the ship during the night; when Lapis discovered the hastily scrawled letter early the next morning, she had been exceedingly upset, but she shoved the emotions down, much to Peridot’s dismay. She had needed to focus far more on trying to keep a ship with just three crew members afloat, after all.

Jasper’s loyalty was unwavering, though Peridot still caught her staring longingly after the captain every so often and could tell that she was hurting. She seemed determined to stay on the Crystalled Mirror until she absolutely had to leave, and it wasn’t until Lapis herself decided that she was getting too old for piracy at the ripe old age of twenty seven that she, too, retired to find something else to do. Neither of them knew where she ended up, and though the former captain tried to get ahold of her it seemed to be nigh impossible.

Though saying goodbye to their friends was terribly depressing, Lapis and Peridot still found a fairly sizeable house in a quiet village, and it was there that they settled to live out the rest of their lives. Letters came on occasion from the soldiers of Delmarva to update them on whether they would need the leadership of the former heiress; most of them simply reassured them that everything was fine, but Peridot was still afraid to make any attempt to return to her former home.

After spending so long constantly on the run, the quiet peace of their lives was almost disconcerting. Every so often, Lapis would be startled by somebody knocking on the door and reach for her sword; and Peridot would let her, afraid that settling down in one place would draw Yellow Diamond to her location to wreak revenge on her daughter for abandoning her. Word about that crazy couple that scared easy and rushed to attack in self defense spread pretty quickly, and for a while only the people hired to come by and deliver the mail would even so much as approach the little house.

Still, though paranoia ran rampant through them for a while, they were happy. They spent their nights glad that they wouldn’t have to attack people for money anymore; Peridot was the one more glad for that, but Lapis was relieved that she didn’t need to risk her own well being for income. They had enough saved away from piracy that they could live without doing much of anything, and what little they needed they could earn from doing the occasional odd job, from gardening to commissioned portraits; they were stable and happy, and they were glad to be so.

Lapis was twenty eight and Peridot was twenty six when they decided that they might be ready to have their first child. It took a lot of asking around, but eventually they were able to adopt a newborn child that was abandoned by her mother; they named her Chrysocolla, and she was the perfect little addition to their family, a happy, well behaved, quiet, and bright child adored by not only her mothers but also the peaceful community surrounding them. At times, the former pirate wished that she could be raised on the Crystalled Mirror so that it could be passed down another Lazuli generation, but almost entirely, she was glad that they were together and safe.

When Chrysocolla was one year old, ten years after Peridot left her position as the princess of Delmarva and two years after they settled down, Lapis Lazuli and Princess Peridot Diamond decided that it was time to get married. They managed to get in touch with, at the very least, Ruby, Sapphire, and Garnet, who came to visit from where they had settled in America; and they brought with them Pearl, Amethyst, and their small daughter, Opal, as well.

Nobody could quite figure out where Jasper had gone, as much as Lapis tried and as saddening as it was to everybody, but the day of their wedding was a happy one nonetheless. After ten years of being together, they had to admit that looking at each other underneath an arch and having their wedding ceremony read by the ordained priestess Rose Quartz, both of them had to admit that they fell in love with one another all over again, as if they were lovesick and hormonal teenagers as they had been ten years ago.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you want this to continue with a kudos + a comment!


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